Pumpkin ravioli and nutroast

I don’t think of ravioli as Christmassy but strangely enough the last time I attempted to make it was Christmas eve last year! Make of it what you will. Perhaps summer is the time to buy wanton (or geegaw) wrappers and then wonder what to do with them. This year’s ravioli happened at the end of the packet and the remaining filling morphed into a most delicious nut roast.

Now nut roast is definitely perfect for festive meals. I will be making my usual Christmas nut roast next week. This one that I made a week or two ago was surprisingly good. It was effortlessly vegan and gluten free. Much better than my last attempt at a GF vegan nut roast. I think the pumpkin was the key. It helps to bind and moisten and add flavour. No wonder I love pumpkin so much.

Unfortunately I haven’t been finding time and energy to cook pumpkin lately so I had a wedge of it languishing in the fridge. A bit of dedicated scrapping and some roasting revived it and turned it into ravioli filling than then become nut roast that when chopped up and grilled till crispy reminded me of fishfingers. I don’t want to make any false promises. It was the look and crunchy exterior rather than the taste. But it did make me remember fishfinger sandwiches.

Sandwiched between two slices of fresh bread these fingers of nut roast were every bit – no, even more – pleasing. I highly recommend you try this, despite the whimsy of the recipe. (I couldn't salvage much tofu from Sylvia's love of it and I have onion and garlic powders to use up.)

I am also sending the ravioli to Ruth of Once Upon a Feast for Pasta Presto Nights. The weekly pasta blog event has hung up its boots for the year but will be back to inspire us with yummy pasta dishes early next year.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Royal Botantic Garden Edinburgh
This time two years ago: Coconut ice is very very nice
This time three years ago: Nutroast for dinosaurs

Pumpkin and almond ravioli
serves 2 (and makes far more filling than needed for the few wrappers I had)

• 800g pumpkin, roasted (with a bit of oil and pinch of salt for about 40 minutes at 220 C)
• ½ cup finely chopped almonds
• ½ cup ground almonds
• 5 small cubes of tofu
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp onion granules
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• dash of smoked paprika
• 14 geegaw wrappers (or more)
  

Mash pumpkin and mix with all ingredients other than geegaw wrappers. Place a small spoonful of filling in the centre of a geegaw wrapper and use a brush or finger to dab water over half the edge of the wrapper (I found it easier to do this by holding the wrapper in my hand rather than lying it on a bench and easier to use my finger to dampen the edge). Fold wrapper over and seal at the edge. Set aside and fill remaining wrappers.

If you have more wrappers you could freeze any extra ravioli. It is always recommended to freeze apart on a tray and then throw frozen ravioli into a bag so they don’t stick together when you take them out of the freezer. Cook straight out of the freezer – you probably need to cook them an extra couple of minutes but this is more guesstimate than experience.

To cook the unfrozen ravioli, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Carefully place the ravioli in the boiling water and simmer for about 3-5 minutes until the “pasta” is cooked when tested.

I served mine with a simple sauce of facon, broccoli and tomato.

Pumpkin and almond nut roast
serves 4

• Two thirds of the above ravioli filling (or you could probably use the whole lot and add a bit more almonds and corn crumbs)
• ⅔ cup raw brown rice - cooked
  
• Good amount of corn crumbs - about ½ - 1 cup (or breadcrumbs - whether gf or not)
  
• 170g (small) tin of creamed corn

Cook rice (about 30 minutes). Mix with remaining ingredients and spoon into a lined or silicone loaf tin. (It shouldn’t be the consistency of batter rather than runny.) Bake loaf until lightly browned. I baked mine for 40-50 minutes at 200 C and then chopped into slices (which looked like “fingers”) the next day and grilled them till they were crispy. They were great in a sandwich with either cheese and chutney or mayonnaise and gherkins, accompanied by salad.

On the stereo:
Your hundred best tunes: vol 1 (featuring jesu joy of man’s desiring and 11 other tracks): various artists