Sun-Dried Tomato Ravioli Filling

Yesterday was an odd and busy day at our house. First it was my husband’s birthday. Happy birthday plus one sweetie! For his birthday I made a special dinner (homemade ravioli). He doesn’t often get food just because it tastes good. I am such a pain when it comes to nutrition that I decided he needed a nice meal that was all about taste, but not ridiculously unhealthy. I can’t serve my sweetie anything that is too bad for him.

So, I knew I was making ravioli yesterday afternoon but then, my father called yesterday morning and asked me how to roast a turkey breast so I volunteered to make it for him. This resulted in an obsessed me cleaning the kitchen of any possible salmonella contamination before I started the ravioli at about 5 pm. Sometimes I am such a geek when it comes to potential contamination. I even got out the bleach, which is something I don’t do often since it is so toxic. I was swamped yesterday which is why I didn't post anything. Now I need to catch up today on what I made yesterday.

I made the ravioli filling a few days ago knowing the ravioli was on the agenda. This filling kept fine in the refrigerator for three days. The dough and ravioli recipes will follow shortly.

Sun-Dried Tomato Ravioli Filling
Makes 1 batch – enough for 48 ravioli filled with ½ tablespoon each.

Ingredients:

Strained almond pulp leftover from two batches of almond milk
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
3 tablespoons of oil (olive or canola)
2 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
10 sun-dried tomatoes

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine everything in your food processor and process until the mixture is an even light red.

Place the flavored almond mixture in a baking dish (I used 4 small loaf pans) and bake until it begins to set up. The time will depend on the size of your baking dish. I baked mine for about an hour in a water bath.

When the spread was cool it was the texture of well-drained ricotta. This was exactly what I wanted for ravioli filling.

Nutritional Information for the entire recipe:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 847.45
Calories From Fat (92%) - 778.97

Total Fat - 109.12g
Saturated Fat - 3.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 4650.46mg
Potassium - 780.35mg
Total Carbohydrates - 18.21g
Fiber - 3.4g
Sugar - 9.22g
Protein - 3.33g

Comments:

This recipe came from a desire to use the strained almond pulp that results when you make almond milk. We drink a batch of almond milk every day. This results in a lot of almond pulp. In the past I have added the almond pulp to veggie burgers, but that doesn’t use up the pulp fast enough. The ravioli filling is based on the almond feta recipe that was in Vegetarian Times earlier this year. I posted my modification of that recipe here.

Since the almond skins remain when making almond milk the color of the pulp is mostly white, with little flecks of brown skin. I added the sun-dried tomatoes for flavor and to obscure the almond skin flecks. The resulting product tasted great and was a dark pink/light red color. As soon as I tasted it I knew it would make great ravioli filling, and it did.

If you have more filling that ravioli dough this also makes a really tasty spread for a cracker or bread. We had some spread on cucumber rounds and the flavors worked well.

Now that I have found a few uses for the almond pulp I won’t be throwing it away any more. I plan to make many more items with the almond pulp. I have half of my ravioli dough left from yesterday and need to make almond milk again this morning. Don’t be surprised if you see another ravioli filling today or tomorrow.