You know what the hardest thing about being GF/vegan? There’s not as much ready-to-eat food to buy. We used to get that Cucina Fresca fresh pasta, but can’t anymore. There’s no similar fresh or frozen substitute that is both GF and vegan. You can find GF OR vegan, but not both. <sigh> Anyway, so I have to make it all myself!

The CSA gave us some fresh shell peas – it’s like heaven in pea form. So sweet and tender… After gorging on as many as I could eat fresh, I still had some left over, and decided to try my hand at ravioli.

For the filling:

• 2 small shallots, minced
• 1.5 C shelled peas
• 1 T fresh chopped parsley
• 1 T fresh chopped mint
• 1/2 – 3/4 C vegan ricotta (either Tofutti brand or make your own from the Artisan Vegan Cheese book)
• salt, pepper

In a skillet, heat 2 t oil and sautee the shallots for 1-2 minutes. Add the peas and cover with a lid. Let cook/steam for another 3-4 minutes, until the peas are tender. Put in a bowl and smoosh with the parsley and mint. Then add the ricotta, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. It’s probably best to make the dough first and while that’s resting in the fridge, make this.

Scouring the internet for pasta recipes and such, I kinda came up with a merged one of my own, that ended up tasting pretty good and working well in ravioli.

• 1 1/3 C superfine rice flour (like Authentic Foods brand)
• 2/3 C tapioca starch
• 1 t xanthan gum
• 1 t salt
• ~1/2-3/4 C warm water
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 flax eggs (2 T ground flax meal in 6 T warm water let set for 10 minutes to thicken)

In a stand mixer, add the flour through salt. Mix the flax eggs with the olive oil and add to the flour. Turn the mixer on low with the dough hook. Slowly add the water until it comes together, not sticking to the sides of the bowl but not too crumbly. When it came mostly together I stopped and finished kneading on the counter.

Sprinkle some rice flour on the counter and knead until the dough comes together in a nice, smooth ball. Cut into 4 pieces, smoosh flat-ish, wrap in saran-wrap and let rest in the fridge about 30 minutes. (The specks are from the flax – it helps hold things together AND gives you a boost of healthy stuff like omega-3’s and fiber!)

I used a pasta machine to make the sheets of dough, but you could also just use a rolling pin. The pasta machine I kept at the thickest to thickest-1 setting. After rolling the dough, place 1-2 t mounds of filling, top with another sheet of dough, and gently press the dough together around the filling. Take a pizza cutter or knife to cut around the raviolis, and optionally take a fork to add indentions around the sides.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1-2 T salt. Drop the raviolis in gently and cook about 3-4 minutes until they’re floating. Drain and quickly rinse with cool water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat up 1 T butter + 1 T olive oil until melted and bubbly (I used the homemade butter I link to in the “cookbooks/links/rec” tab above) and add about 1/4 C dry white wine. Reduce by at least half. Add the cooked raviolis and toss to coat. There should be just a light coating of sauce on the ravioli – not swimming in a puddle. It doesn’t need a lot of sauce!