THICKNESS!!

make it yourself.

yup.

that's my thought.

homemade tastes better than storebought, 

and you can almost always have so much MORE of whatever it is you want.

unless all you want is convenience.

i guess you got me there.

it's certainly not of greater convenience to add ingredients and make dough; 

and rest it and  roll it and cut it and fill it and seal it and boil it and sauce it up and serve it....

but, holy sh!tballs is it about a billion times more muh-fuhhh'n expert.

and if i'm gonna eat it, i wanna taste it, and i want a LOT of it.

yup.

exxxtra effort for exxxtra excellence in everything is totally worth it.

that's real,

ANYbody can eat a can of barfaroni or whatever,

but real culinary crusaders take their time by force, and use it to create meals

that nourish souls and bellyholes at the same time.

mmhmmm.

dudes,

homemade ravioli are what's up.

great big fat flavorful pillows of pure hottness,

stacked up in homemade exxxtra-thiccc tomato sauce,

ready to be devoured in under an hour....

check the teleport:

RAH-VEE-OH-LEEEE!!!

y'all ain't ready for this level of goodness all at once-

it's a three parter from the jump off, too-

y'got the sauce simmering,

the filling on the stove,

and the dough in your indispensable dependable stand-uprighteous mixer.

that's a lot going on, but it's just what you need,

if you need solace and comfort and joy all in one kitchen experience.

that's real.

the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress test kitchen laboratory was bustlin' like a beehive,

and i was all-alonely going solo and going hard on my ravioli process.

-

do you know my pasta recipe?

no?

would you like it?

yeah?

...aight:

-

*

BASIC SEMOLINA PASTA!

-

in your trusty stand-mixer, with the dough hook attached, combine:

1 cup flour;

1/2 cup semolina flour;

3 T olive oil;

1 1/2 tsp salt;

2/3 cup warm water.

beat it up for eleven minutes, wrap it and rest it for ten more, 

before rolling it out super-thin,

and cutting twice as many of whatever shape you'd like your pouches to be-

tops and bottoms means two for one in the pasta department.

easy, right?

i know!

and when you fill 'em, moisten the rim of the bottom circle,

and press 'em together firmly-

it seals itself, and you don't need to crimp 'em, either-

i didn't this time, although i usually do-

i had scalloped edges on these, and i thought it's be pretty to show that off a little,

without the forkline sunrays radiating from the middles-

i like it.

*

the filling was pretty freakin' easy-

i had a quarter cup of unused, drained and rinsed chickpeas, 

and a quarter cup of black beans from previous meals waiting to get used up-

so i added 3 T minced onion, two cloves crushed garlic,

sage, thyme, nootch, and GPOP, as well as 2 huge handfuls of chopped baby spinach,

all to a lightly oiled hot pan, and let the greens wilt and the beans mash under a fork,

and then i let it all cool off.

that's really it.

...bt when i assembled my ravioli?

i also added some homemade vegan tofu-tapioca mozzarella i had on hand.

that's what's really tight in these rural roadways, bros.

-

y'want that tofu-tapioca recipe?

you do?

sure thing-

-

*

STRETCHY VEGAN MOZZ'!

-

in your food processor or high speed blender,

combine:

1/2 block silken tofu, undrained;

1/4 cup tapioca starch;

2 T olive oil;

3 T nootch;

1 tsp ea GPOP;

pink salt;

2 T lemon juice;

1/4 cup water....

puree it until smooth,

and transfer it to a small pot on high heat,

where you're gonna stir it like a wild tornado until it's thick as heck, 

and sticky, and stretchy-

it works fast, so you should, too.

how dope is it?

maaaaaaaan, it's frickin' expert, and that's no joke.

-

the sauce?

neighbors, i make a pretty mean marinara-

but i make a downright cruel batch of slow-cooked thicccness when i have an exxtra second-

here's how it goes:

-

*

N.T.S.W.T. SAUCE!!!

-

in a 2 quart sauce pot, with a tablespoon of olive oil, on medium-high heat, saute:

3 T minced onion;

3 cloves crushed garlic;

2 T tiny tiny tiny diced carrot;

1 cup whole grape tomatoes-

add:

2 T tomato paste;

1 T nootch;

a heavy shake of Garlic Powder & Onion Powder;

oregano, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, crushed red pepper.

stir that to mash into the onions an' that,

then deglaze it with:

2 T white wine vinegar;

1 T tamari.

pour in 1 cup crushed tomatoes;

1/2 cup water;

pink salt;

fresh parsley,

and stir it up, lid it, (leave your wooden spoon IN- rules is rules)

and let it simmer for twenty minutes on medium-low.

unlid it, stir it, adjust your spices, and maybe add a little more water if it needs it-

the whole lil tomatoes should burst, if they don't stab 'em.

i'm serious.

it's good for you.

now,

if that sauce doesn't meet your expectations?

then you're a bummer, and you're bumming me out.

however,

if you know what to do when you're doing raviolis right,

the you already had a big ol' pot of salty water roiling away at a hard boil,

and when those packets of sexxxiness floated up,

you used a spider to remove them to a big mixin' bowl 

with a fat scoople of sauce already in it.

i mean c'mon, man, what are you?

dumb?

a spider is a metal mesh strainer/spoon, btw- keep your arachnids the F* out of here.

-

now,

to serve this properly,

you need fresh parsley sprankles, and fried garlic sprankles-

i keep a batch of pan-browned garlic in olive oil at all times, just for occasions like this.

a big blop of sauce on the bottom of a wide bowl,

all those sauce-tossed ravioli over that-

i think i made twenty four big ones this time around;

and then you activate the expertism with those spranks.....

guys,

everything awesome exxploded inside my head in the best way from the first bite 

down to the very last one....

*

homemade tastes better.

i stand by that statement.

made by hand,

made with love,

made with consideration, compassion, and kindness,

i do what i do,

and i know that i'm acting according to what i believe to be best for me and mine.

making real vegan food that's beautiful and bountiful and burly af is what i'm made for,

and really, after twenty something years of it,

what i'm made from, too.

i'm rewarding inside and out from nourishing my mind and my body and my spirit

with the results of my effort to be better than average,

and to eschew convenience for substance.

i'm grateful for everything that led me here;

never quiet, never soft.....