Beetroot Ravioli

The original recipe for this, by Mathew Kenny, is one that I have been wanting to try for a few years. Everything about it leaves me salivating (in fact, many of his recipes do). I have given a go at many of his dishes, sometimes with great success, but other attempts were probably best left to more experienced chefs. Perhaps the reason for putting off trying to make this one for so long is that I was probably afraid that the actual meal would fail to meet the high expectations set for it by the amazing-sounding recipe. 

We have encountered a few beetroot ravioli previously that were underwhelming. Mrs Green has a sad story about being quite hungry and buying a box of beetroot ravioli from a shop in Brooklyn, eagerly anticipating a delicious healthy-eating treat, opening the said box only to be mystified by the absence of pasta. While it was strictly her own fault, having failed to appreciate the implications of buying “ravioli” from a “raw” take-away shop, she nevertheless felt hard done by (“a clear case of misrepresentation”, she raged) and beetroot ravioli has since been coined as a term denoting generally disappointing items. 

Now, the below does not actually follow Kenny’s recipe, but rather takes it as its inspiration and a starting point to making a new recipe. Friends, I tell you, beetroot ravioli is a revelation. 

For my take on beetroot ravioli, I decided to revisit some older posts which made this super easy, especially since I had some leftover raw kale pesto. Once the filling was made, and because the recipe calls for raw beetroot, all that I really had to do was to assemble the plate, albeit with some practice and patience.

Because I wanted to use the Raw Kale Pesto sauce to dress the dish, I added extra olive oil to it until it had a more salad dressing-like consistency and it was easy to spoon over the dish lending an added cheffy look.

The filling for the ravioli is a pimped up version of the Cream Cheese recipe. With the addition of roasted garlic and a few more ingredients, the basic recipe was elevated to new heights and worked really well. This step is the only one that requires some forward planning. We tend to have the oven on at least three times a week, so when I had some sweet potatoes in the oven the night before I threw in a bulb of garlic. I made the “cheese” the night before as well and then blended all of the ingredients for this version the following evening as I was preparing this dish. Do not be too concerned that the dish requires a whole head of roasted garlic, once roasted, the garlic looses a lot of the potency of its raw version.

The original recipe by Mathew Kenney is for a completely raw beetroot ravioli. For the filling he uses a raw nut based cheese. I will give it a try one day, but since it requires a powerful blender such as a Vitamix, I decided to make a dish that I could share with those of you who do not have one.

For topping the dish I also added some raw unsalted pistachio nuts, lemon zest (this really sings in the dish) and some rucola leaves. Mrs Green loved it.

Filling:

Ingredients:

• Follow the recipe for Cream Cheese and add
• One small garlic bulb
• 2 X tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Method:

• Roast one garlic bulb by cutting the pointy part off and placing in a preheated oven @ 200C for 30 min.
• Squeeze the bulb, discard the skin, and place the garlic paste along with all other ingredients in a food processor fitted with the S blade until smooth.

Beetroot “Pasta”:

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium to large beetroot
• Juice of half a lemon
• Zest of half a lemon
• Pinch of salt

Method:

• Peel the beetroot and slice off the ends to make a cube shape. This make for equal sized slices as well as keeping the beetroot steady while slicing.
• Using a mandolin, box grater with a wide blade, a veg peeler or a chefs knife, slice the beetroot as thinly as possible. I am not friends with my mandolin, so I used my chef’s knife.
• Place the slices into a bowl and add the lemon juice and salt. Coat all slices well and let rest for a few minutes.

Raw Kale Pesto Dressing:

Ingredients:

• Follow the recipe for Raw Kale Pesto and add
• 2 X tbsp olive oil

Method:

• In a small glass add 1 tbsp of pesto and 2 tbsp of olive oil and stir well. If it is too thick to drizzle, then add a little more oil.

Assembly:

• We ate this dish as a starter and each had five ravioli, which equals ten slices.
• Place five slices on a plate. Each slice should be marinated but not dripping with lemon juice.
• Spoon some filling onto each slice.
• Lay the second slice of beetroot over the filling and press gently to form the ravioli. 
• Top with pistachio nuts, rucola leaves and the lemon zest.
• Drizzle some raw kale pesto dressing as fancy as you can.