Dinner Plate #35

 

This is different, but good! I have here some steamed green beans, zucchini with tomatoes, and homemade mushroom tofu ricotta ravioli in a cashew cream sauce. This is going to take a minute to explain.

While I have largely made everything I could make on my utilizing-things list I made at the beginning of this year that did not need an oven, when I was in my freezer-focused season, I unearthed a totally forgotten package of wonton wrappers, bought who knows when with the intention of making ravioli.

So this time around, still determined to keep getting through things where I can, I decided to make ravioli. The filling is from the recipe from Veggie World Recipes. I got about 26 raviolis made from the wonton wrappers with that, and they were delicious, but...

What a mess it was making them! I struggled to peel the sheets off the stack without tearing them, and it was very delicate work. I kept getting filling at the edges, despite my best efforts. I had been putting each ravioli carefully on a tray as I worked, and when I filled that tray with about 20 raviolis, I accidentally knocked that tray onto the floor. (I had just cleaned the floor, and fortunately most of them didn't fall in the floor itself, but still, they did not end up looking that great after the fall.) As I was doing this, I discovered a positive thing...which is no matter how pricey the frozen vegan ravioli is at Wegmans, it is worth it. Because I will never make ravioli again, I am guessing.

But by some miracle of cooking them at a very low simmer in batches of 8 at a time, lowered delicately one at a time with a slotted spoon and then fished out carefully one at a time after about 5 minutes, my raviolis did not tear or explode, which is more than I can say for the frozen ones. And the filling was better than the kind in the frozen section.

Even so: It was a ton of trouble. I think making ravioli is a group activity, something for socializing, not something you just set forth to do in your own kitchen on your own, maybe?

I was also in the mood for a cream sauce, and found an "alfredo" recipe at Downshiftology. This wasn't nearly cheesy enough or buttery enough to be reminiscent of what I can recall of alfredo sauce, but it was tasty and went super well with my precious triangles of mushroom-tofu-spinach goodness. I added black pepper for some extra help with presentation, and honestly, it was all delicious. I just can't imagine putting myself through that again. Of course, I have nearly half the wrappers left over that need to turn into something, but I will worry about that later.

For my sides, first I had some plain steamed fresh green beans (which are always delicious), this time just with some salt, and they didn't need anything else. Green beans are amazing in season, aren't they?

And also I had this zucchini and tomatoes recipe, using multicolored tomatoes. I used vegan butter to veganize the recipe from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. I know it sounds a bit weird to add brown sugar, but this was amazing, and I would unquestionably make it again.

Even though I will not want to make ravioli again, oddly enough, I am really glad I did it. And who knows. Maybe someday something will make me want to put myself through all that again. But not unless it's a special occasion, or I'm on vacation, or something. If I want ravioli under most circumstances, I'm just going to swallow hard and pay the price for it.