Many of you remember Keith Drinkwine from the first guest post that he did back in February. Well, we liked him so much that we brought him back again! Anna is in Florida this week so he is filling in for her!

Thanks to working on a farm and being asked for recipes for this blog I have been introduced to vegetables I have never seen or tasted before and forced to be creative in cooking them.  Not that I have never tasted a sweet potato before, I had.  It is just that preparing and eating one that is fresh, that has a back story with the farmer who grew it, makes it an exponentially better experience. Even brussel sprouts taste good when they are just off the plant and not frozen and shipped across the country. In fact I never considered myself much a vegetable lover at all until I got to college.  For over 5 years since then I have adopted a vegan diet.

Now, on to the recipe. This was adapted from a Pumpkin Ravioli Recipe found here: http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/vegan-pumpkin-ravioli. It has two main components, making the pasta and then the filling.

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 cup roasted pumpkin  (or sweet potato)
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan Spread (or butter)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• Pinch of Pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup Almonds

Pasta Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 tsp olive oil

Topping Ingredients:

• 4-5 tbs Olive Oil
• 1 Shallot (Leek or Onion can be substituted)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Salt to taste

-Start out with 3 medium size sweet potatoes and throw them in the oven at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until they are soft

-While the taters are in the oven, ready your food processor by putting the chopping blade in place

-Place all the pasta ingredients and pulse until the contents begin to look like bread crumbs getting larger and larger.  If the flour doesn’t do this even after a minute of pulsing begin adding a small amount of water until it does. (This can probably been done with a pastry blender by hand.)

-Once dough has desired consistence remove it from the processor and begin lightly kneading it in your hands until well kneaded.

Kneaded dough.

-On a hard, flat surface being rolling out a small portion of the pasta dough with a rolling pin until it is as flat as possible

-Use a cookie or biscuit cutter approx. 2 inches in diameter and cut out the dough for the ravioli.

-Repeat rolling out dough and cutting into shape

Ravioli circles...

-Place cut out dough on a sheet of parchment paper and set aside for later.

-Begin boiling around 1-2 quarts of water with a pinch of salt on the stove top.

-After the sweet potato has thoroughly roasted, pull off skins and mash. Add  1 cup of mash and the rest of the filling ingredients to the processor.

Filling ingredients in food processor.

-Pulse until ingredients have been thoroughly chopped and combined (Adding the almonds first and chopping without the other ingredients is recommended)

-With a spoon, scoop around one tablespoon worth of filling onto one ravioli half

filling the raviolis

-Place another half on top and press around the edge, sealing the filling inside

All sealed up!

-Continue until filling and dough are used up

Raviolis made and ready to go.

-Once water is boiling, add raviolis and allow to cook for 15 minutes

-In the last 5 minutes of cooking, begin sautéing topping in a separate pan on the stove

-After raviolis have cooked, allow them to drain in strainer and place them on a plate. Add topping on top.

-Of course, enjoy!

Ready to dig in??