Vegan Ravioli with Sunchoke and Herb filling

(serves 4)

For the pasta
250g Flour, plus more for dusting
50g Semolina Flour
Water (about half a cup, or more)
A pinch of salt

For the filling
1 lb Mixed fresh greens (Dandelion greens, Mustard greens, beet greens, stinging nettles, chard, baby spinach…)
1 lb Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
A big bunch of basil
A bunch of parsley
(extra) A small bunch of mint leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
A good grating of nutmeg
Salt

MAKE THE FILLING
I highly recommend you do this the night before, for the simple reason that, regardless of how well you cook everything, this filling is still going to release some water. We want our filling to drip out as much water as possible.

1. Cook the vegetables – Use a pot that can fit all of them. You will only need a couple inches of water. Once the water boils, add a good teaspoon of salt and dunk the herbs in, then cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the herbs until nice and tender – 15 to 25 minutes, depending on which herbs you use. If you can and want, steaming them would be an even better choice.

At the same time, cook the roughly chopped, unpeeled sunchokes by boiling them until tender. This took about 30 minutes for me. It would be even better to roast them: toss with a little olive oil and roast for about 40 minutes in a 400F˚ (200C˚) oven.

Once both are cooked, wait for them to cool down a bit. Squeeze as much water out of the greens as you can. As for the sunchokes, you can leave them unpeeled or not, but I personally really appreciate the peels both because of nutritional value and flavor.

2. Assemble – Take the fresh herbs you are using and chop them. Add all the ingredients for the filling into a food processor, and process until smooth. As for the amount of salt, go easy at first – you can adjust it later. Hey, it’s vegan, so you can taste it no problem!
Put the filling in a colander over a bowl and store in the fridge until ready to use.



MAKE THE PASTA
Making the pasta without eggs is even easier, as it will not dry out as fast when working with it. The water amount is not specified, as it varies a lot depending on the flour you use. I encourage you to substitute some of the white flour with a more nutritious kind of flour, like spelt or rye, as long as it is milled as finely as possible.

For reference, see in-depth guide to pasta making.

1. Make a well of flour on a wooden board, add a bit of water and start kneading, adding more water a little by little as you go. You should end up with a very supple ball of dough. If it seems too stiff or too dry, add more waer and re-knead.

2. Prepare to roll it out. If you make it with a rolling pin, roll it to the desired thinness (not too thin, as eggless pasta is easier to stretch but is less resilient) and cut the sheet of pasta into 4 inch wide strips. If using a pasta machine, you already have the strips, so even better!
Make sure you keep the board and the tools well floured.

3. Take out the filling, and discard the water that has leaked out. Put a teaspoonful of filling at regular intervals near the lower edge of the strip, then fold the pasta over the filling (see picture below). Press to seal the edges with your fingers. To make the pockets, pinch the pasta in between the gaps, as to create a sort of ‘wall’ out of the strip. With a pasta wheel, cut each ravioli by dragging the wheel towards yourself – not from yourself and away. This will cause the part you pinched to fold inwards and create a pocket.


4. Lay the prepared ravioli on a floured tray, and make sure they do not overlap. You can freeze them this way and, once they’re frozen, dump them in a bag.

You will find yourself with some pasta scraps. Do not throw them away! I froze them along with the ravioli, and I am planning to use them in soup.

5. To boil them, dump them in a parge pot with plenty of salted boiling water until they rise to the surface, about 3 to 5 minutes.

SUGGESTIONS FOR DRESSING
Because these are so simple, they can be tossed with pretty much any sauce you have – especially if you are making these with potatoes instead of sunchokes. Here are a few suggestions:

~ Finish them in a pan with some very good tomato sauce and some fragrant basil. Bless with some extra virgin olive oil, the best you can afford.

~ Make a stir-fry of onions and cook them with a splash of balsamic vinegar until caramelized.

~ Toss with regular pesto, or with pistachio pesto, or with sicilian tomato pesto.

Blessings to Hortus Cuisine