INGREDIENTS
Ricotta
- 200 g / 7 oz tofu (about 1/2 block) well-pressed
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp soya or other plant-based milk
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 pinch salt
- Generous grind of black pepper
Pasta
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
- Pinch salt
METHOD
Crumble the pressed tofu into a large bowl and add the finely chopped fresh basil and nutritional yeast. Stir well and add a spoonful of milk plus the Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Continue to mix, with your hands if you prefer, until the mixture can be formed into a ball. Cover with cling film and pop it in the fridge.
To make the pasta, sieve the flour into a large bowl and add the salt. Form a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water and oil. Stir until well mixed and then continue to kneed until you get a smooth, pastry consistency. Add more water or flour to get it right, it should hold together in a ball without sticking to your hands.
Roll the pasta into a rough sausage shape and cut approximately 1/3 off. This will be the bottom layer. Roll out this bottom layer with some flour underneath until it is just a few mm thick. Place a small ball of the ricotta mixture, about 3-4 cm in diameter, equally spaced onto the rolled out pasta.
Roll out the other 2/3 of the pasta, equally as thick and lay it loosely over the bottom sheet. Cup the pastry over the ricotta balls and then cut out with either a cup that overlaps the balls by 1/2 cm or so of use a ravioli cutter like this, if you have one. We used a cup but this recipe went down so well that the cutters are in the post.
Remove the excess pasta sheet and, with a wet fork, press down the edges of the ravioli.
Place the pasta into boiling water for 4-5 minutes, leave to cool and the pasta will continue to shrink around the ricotta filling. Serve with your favourite tomato pasta sauce or pesto.
