Baby Bella Mushroom Filling (Raviolis)

In the last blog post I wrote about my homemade ravioli pasta. In today's piece, I will share one of my organic vegan filling recipes, which is made with baby portabella mushrooms as the main ingredient. When I make this filling for raviolis, I make it in advance of my pasta dough so it has time to cool. The photo below shows the mushroom ravioli on the left side covered in a tomato mushroom ragu and then roasted butternut squash with sage raviolis on the right.



Ingredients
1 large organic onion (yellow or red)
3 toes organic garlic
1 large organic roma tomato
1 medium organic bell pepper of any color (optional)
3 stalks of organic celery
15 to 20 baby bella mushrooms
1 small tub vegan gourmet cream cheese alternative (Whole Foods carries this)
3 to 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup water

To begin, prepare all of your fresh ingredients. Dice your onion, celery and tomato into a small dice. Cut up your mushrooms into a medium dice, being sure to thoroughly wash and snip the ends of the mushroom stems first. If you love bell pepper, you are welcome to add 1 bell of any color, also diced small. For the garlic, I grew up using a garlic press and prefer this method to a standard garlic fine dice. Either way, peel your garlic toes and set them aside.

Using a large sauce pan, coat the bottom with a glaze of extra virgin olive oil and bring the heat up. I start on a higher heat using a gas stove to get my oil up to temp faster. I then crack a few tablespoons of whole black pepper corns into the oil along with my kosher sea salt. Then add your onion, celery and bell pepper (if you decided to add the bell). Mix all together and begin the reduction process. Take your garlic press and add your garlic directly to the mixture. In traditional Cajun cooking, this is the base for a wide variety of dishes and you will see this mixture used a lot in my recipes. In New Orleans, Chefs refer to the Onion, Celery and Bell Pepper as the holy trinity (and of course the garlic must be in there!). This is similar to the French mirepoix, which is the combination of onion, carrot and celery.

Making sure all of your ingredients are mixed together evenly in the pan, add a small amount of water to coat just the bottom of about half of your pan and mix together. This will assist in cooking the veggies down, while releasing all of those wonderful aromas and flavors! Stir occasionally for 5 minutes or so and then add your mushrooms. Mix them all together and allow the pan to sit, stirring occasionally. Add your roma tomato last and stir into your mixture. I like to reduce 2 times, so once your water has mainly been absorbed and/or evaporated from the first amount, add another splash to cover the bottom of about half of your pan. Mix and let come up to a simmer again, stirring occasionally. Remember to taste, taste, taste! Add salt and pepper as needed at this stage.

Take the mixture off of the fire and allow to cool while you make your pasta dough. Once the stuffing has cooled and your dough is rolled out and you are ready for the filling, take a small bowl and spoon about 1/4 of your mixture into the bowl. Using your Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese Alternative, mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of the cream cheese into the small bowl with your veggies. Use your spoon to gently mix the cream cheese completely with your vegetable mixture. Taste and season again. The cheese will help to cool the mixture even more and give you a creamy texture while also acting as a bonding agent to keep your filling manageable when you are spooning it out onto your dough. Your filling is made and ready for stuffing!


Once your raviolis are made, if you have any remaining stuffing in the sauce pan (cream cheese free), you can use this as a base for your sauce. I add to this base sliced baby bellas, 1 to 2 roma tomatoes diced and 1 can of organic tomato sauce (unless I have previously made my own tomato sauce, which I would use instead). Simply combine your ingredients and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust your salt and pepper and you are ready with a wonderful topping! If you used all of the ingredients in your raviolis, simply start from the beginning and make your base, then add the items listed in this paragraph and you are good to go!


Buon Appetito!!

___________________________________________________

If you would like to assist in supporting my blogging and recipes, please consider making a donation towards the next meal.  Healing the world's health one lentil at a time.  Blessings.