Vegan Month of Food 2018 - Day 3: Food Inspired by Someone Who Inspires Me

It was a gloomy day today, thick clouds and pretty windy. Perfect for a day spent in my head with today's prompt.

Today's post is inspired by, and dedicated to my dad. He died over 10 years ago, yet in my entire life, no one has ever had the impact he did, and still does. I've written about my dad a few times over the years. He was everything to me. He could fix anything, was a crazy man behind the wheel (anyone out there remember him going to racing school?! Dad taught me to drive, to the bitter end he drove like a professional race car driver; anytime I was driving and he was shotgun he would always coach me, which could be very interesting at times). Dad was so devoted to his family, his sense of humor was an absolute riot (dry, sarcastic, sharp), he was exceptionally brilliant, and loved good food, especially Italian. Dad really enjoyed good food, not necessarily "fancy" food. Pizza and pasta were so enjoyed by dad, the spicier the better.

In the past on this blog I've shown you ravioli, and gnocchi, so today I went with tortellini. This was the very first time I've made tortellini in my life. I gotta say, it was a little more time consuming than I'd normally devote to a meal, but it is SO worth it! If you scroll past the video, you'll find links and recipes to all the components. I did use a copyrighted recipe by Chef Skye Michael Conroy so I cannot share that with you here. However, I do give the link to a vegan ricotta recipe published long ago by Whole Foods before Bezos got his hands on them.  I omit the shallot, always.  I didn't use a recipe for the Arrabiata sauce, but I did use SanMarzano tomatoes. Scroll down and you''ll see basically what I did for the sauce. You really need to devote the time to reduce the liquids down at least by half. For me this took about 1.5 hours over low heat stirring occasionally. It's thick and spicy, and oh so delicious.

This recipe takes a bit of time. The non-dairy cheeses are super quick, but the sauce takes time to reduce, and the dough needs to rest before using, plus it takes time to roll, cut and fill each pillow. Use a pastry bag for the filling with a large pastry tip. I used an 804 size. Big.

Happy Vegan Tortellini!
Waiting for their bath...

After their bath!

Here's the video, scroll for links.

Link to dough (On the video I say Catskill Animal Sanctuary, but this is the dough I used, sorry!)

https://www.pastabased.com/vegan-tortellini/

Link to filling (As noted in the video, I used a copyrighted recipe I cannot share. Either buy Chef Skye's Non-Dairy Evolution Book, or go to this provided link which is the Whole Foods tofu ricotta recipe they published long before that Bezos got his ugly hand on them, it's excellent and speedy. I always omit the shallot when I use this recipe)

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/tofu-ricotta

The Arrabiata sauce is one I made up. I recommend SanMarzano tomatoes if you can find them in a can, it will make a world of difference. For every larger size can, I'd use about 2-3 tsp of sugar and about 3 cloves crushed garlic. Get the garlic and some olive oil very lightly golden, add your tomatoes and sugar and cook down over low heat til at least reduced by half, stirring regularly. It took me 1.5 hours to get the sauce as I wanted it to be which is super thick. I used a potato masher to get the tomatoes the way I wanted them. When the sauce is reduced, add salt and pepper to taste, along with a generous amount of fresh basil. Don't forget now is when you add your badass crushed red pepper. Lots of it! This is Arrabiata sauce! 

Link to vegan Parmesan (I used Minimalist Baker's recipe, using walnuts instead of cashews)

https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-vegan-Parmesan-cheese/

The most time consuming part of this recipe is preparing the tortellini itself. When I started the recipe it would take me about 30 seconds to twist each pillow. By the time I finished, I was twisting each one in less than 10 seconds! More proof of one of my dad's "famous" sayings that when we start a job we're an apprentice, by the end we're a master. That coupled with his wish that he could skip the apprentice part of every task he had to learn. 

You can make these, spread them out on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and freeze. Once frozen, bag them up and re-freeze for anytime you want a delight in your tummy.

So, there it is. Another super wonderful, budget friendly delicious meal.

Vegan for the animals. Vegan for the Planet. Vegan for the People.

xo