Grain Free Chickpea Ravioli with Almond Ricotta Filling

This post is sponsored by Mountain Rose Herbs. 

I never thought I’d be the type of gal that would love making pasta. It's always seemed extra finicky, like lattice pie crusts or cinnamon buns. I’m all about taking the simple, lazy route to eating delicious things. The easier and quicker the better.

At the same time, I’m a big fan of slow food and getting my hands deep into the composition process. I love kneading bread, rubbing zest into sugar, rolling truffles in cocoa powder. The more tactile the better. I love the somatic experience of being immersed in textures and smells and flavors more than almost anything else. It’s the same reason I love gardening and beach days. It’s full sensory immersion at it’s best. 

In the end I knew I wanted this ravioli recipe to be simple and fun, with high vibey ingredients and an easy-to-follow process at the core. And if I could do it without specialized single-use pasta tools, that would be even better. The final recipe hits the nail right on the head, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it! 

I initially got the idea for this ravioli after I got to make chickpea pasta with Sarah from My New Roots at a blogger retreat back in February (you can find her recipe here). It was so easy! And wonderfully physical. The kneading, the rolling, the tossing in flour. I loved it. As I was messing about with those long yellow noodles, a little thought bubble floated through my mind: it was a vision of scallop-edged chickpea ravioli tossed with edible flowers, herbs and goat cheese. I knew I had to make it for the blog, and here we are! 

In the end I decided to make the ravioli pasta dough with 7 ingredients: chickpea flour, almond flour, tapioca flour, chia, farm fresh eggs, salt and Mountain Rose Herbs Organic Virgin Olive Oil. The mixture of chickpea, almond, tapioca and chia gives the pasta dough an amazing elasticity and a toothsome bite that is (freakily) similar to wheat pasta. Egg whites give the dough necessary binding power and the yolks give the dough a buttery softness. I’m really loving Mountain Rose’s olive oil (did you even know they have culinary oils!?) — it’s Organic and cold-pressed with a soft, buttery, almond-like flavor profile. It melds nicely with the pasta dough — especially as a finishing oil right before serving. 

I’ve got an almond ricotta recipe here for you guys too, which I’ve used as the ravioli filling. I suggest doubling the batch size so you have extra for eating on toast, spreading on roasted sweet potatoes or just eating straight with crackers. You will definitely want extra, trust me. I spiced the ricotta with Mountain Rose Herbs Epicurean Lemon Pepper (it’s just two ingredients), white pepper, miso paste and apple cider vinegar. It’s got that tangy, salty, creamy thing going on that pairs well with everything savory. 

You could sub it out with any store bought ricotta-style diary free cheese, or a soft herbed goat cheese would be a nice addition.

This recipe is definitely a bit of a labor of love — you’ve gotta use some (minor) muscle to roll out the dough and cut out the ravioli shapes. But eating these bad boys al fresco with hot garlicky blistered tomatoes, fresh herbs, olive oil, Cyprus sea salt and a knob of goat cheese… is there anything better? It’s so worth the effort for a date night. Or, even better, invite over some friends to make these ravioli with you! That makes the whole process so much more fun, plus you get to cheers together with a glass of wine when you’re done. Sounds like a fabulous Summertime Saturday evening to me! 

So let’s get to talking recipe details:

1. Things you will need: a bowl, plastic wrap, a ravioli cutter or biscuit cutter, a rolling pin, a large-ish surface to roll out the pasta on, a dough scraper (super helpful but you could get by with a sharp knife), a pastry brush (for brushing egg white onto the dough), a pastry piping bag with the end snipped off (a plastic bag with a corner snipped off also works), a big pasta pot, a slotted spoon.
2. Here’s the whole process, put simply: mix dough, rest dough, roll dough, add egg wash, pipe filling, fold dough over, cut out raviolis, boil raviolis, serve! 
3. A really convenient truth: the pasta dough is sturdier than traditional wheat pastas, so it can be cooked for longer without falling apart. Which means you don’t have to stand over the pot and stress about them getting overcooked. Less stress, woo! The raviolis even hold up to being boiled and pan-fried like dumplings. 
4. For green raviolis, like the ones pictured: I colored half of my ravioli batch with Mountain Rose Herbs Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder. They look kind of like classic spinach ravioli, don’t you think? Their matcha is a gorgeous bright green and very high quality. The ravioli don’t taste strongly of matcha, it’s a very subtle difference. It’s so nice to have an Organic matcha powder option, I can rarely find that even in extremely high quality matcha. It’s lovely used traditionally as a sipping tea as well.
5. PRAISE ZEUS: You don’t need a pasta maker!
6. Don’t let it shrivel up: Make sure you keep your dough wrapped up tightly until ready to use as it dries out easily.
7. Such a prick: hand-rolling out the dough means your raviolis will be a little thicker than a traditional ravioli. Pricking them with a fork before boiling allows water to enter the raviolis and cook both the outside and inside of the pasta. Don’t forget this step! 

I shot a little process GIF to help clarify the rolling and ravioli cutting process I used. Nothing fancy here, but hopefully this GIF simplifies the whole process for you. I find reading pasta recipe instruction sort of kin to reading instructions for origami folding -- it's better if I just have a video that shows me the moves. There are tons of different ways you could cut your ravioli out, but the version I show here just felt the least finicky to me. 

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe and please leave me a comment if you make them! xoxo — Renee 

 

Grain Free Chickpea Ravioli with Garlicky Blistered Tomatoes 

Author: Renee Byrd | Will Frolic for Food · Adapted from: My New Roots Chickpea Pasta · Active prep time: 15 mins · Inactive prep time: 30 mins · Cook time: 10-15 mins · Makes ~30 large ravioli, 4-5 servings · PRINT THIS RECIPE

Tips: Powder your chia in a spice grinder or blender (I use a nutribullet most of the time).

Raviolis

• 2 cups chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 2 tablespoons chia, blended into powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp virgin olive oil, plus more for serving raviolis
• Optional: 2 tsp matcha green tea powder
• 1 egg white for wash

Hot Garlicky Blistered Tomatoes with Thyme

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
• Handful fresh thyme, chopped or roughly torn
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Sea salt and Lemon Pepper, to taste

For the Raviolis:

1. In a large bowl whisk chickpea flour, tapioca flour, almond flour and powdered chia until combined. Make a well in the center of the flour and crack eggs into the well, then add 1 tbsp olive oil and sea salt. Using a spoon stir eggs working from the center to the edges of the flour until mostly combined. Using your hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes or until the texture holds together and is pliable. It will be smoother the more you knead. If too dry add water 1 tsp at a time, but knead sufficiently before doing this because the texture will change as you knead. Roll into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 mins. Note: If you’d like to make a portion of matcha raviolis here’s what you do -- once you’ve completed step 1 divide the dough into two portions. Add 2 tsp matcha green tea powder to one half of the dough, kneading it in using your hands. Wrap each dough portion tightly in plastic wrap and proceed with the recipe from there as directed.
2. Set a pot of salted water boiling. Add 1 tbsp olive oil (prevents raviolis from sticking to one another). While the water is getting to boiling point, make your raviolis.
3. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. While working with one, keep the other ones wrapped tightly in plastic wrap until use to avoid drying out. Roll the first portion of dough into a smooth ball.
4. Flour a work surface lightly with chickpea flour and dust your rolling pin with flour as well. Using your rolling pin, roll dough into a long rectangle shape, about 3 millimeters thick and four inches wide. If edges rip or break simply press back together using your fingers -- a little bit of water helps to glue the pasta back together.
5. Once the pasta dough is nice and thin, use a pastry bag to squeeze out a teaspoon of filling per each ravioli. I like to pipe the filling two inches in from one of the long edges of the rectangles (see photos and video above), spacing the filling two inches apart from one another. Using a pastry brush, brush egg white all around the piped filling. I brush pretty much all of the exposed surface of the pasta -- top, bottom, and between each filling. Fold the long edge of the dough over the filling and use your hands to press the pasta gently together around the filling. Using a ravioli cutter or biscuit cutter cut the ravioli into half moon shapes (letting the cutter overlap off the folded edge). For best results prick the raviolis gently with a fork — this allows hot water to enter the raviolis and cook the inside of the pasta as well as the outside (it took me 4 trials to figure this out! Don’t skip it).
6. Lower the raviolis one by one into your pot of salted water using a slotted spoon (this prevents splashing). Boil raviolis for 13-15 mins, until tender inside and out, stirring the pot once or twice as they’re cooking to ensure the raviolis cook evenly. Note: the thinner you rolled out your pasta dough, the faster these ravioli cook. My 3mm raviolis took 13-15 minutes. This recipe is NOT like most gluten free pasta recipes that fall apart after a few minutes boiling -- the raviolis need more cook time and are pretty sturdy, almost like dumplings. They will float at the surface even when they’re not totally done. If you’re unsure about doneness its best to remove one after 13 minutes and test it for doneness. When raviolis are done they are tender all the way through.
7. Drain, toss with olive oil and serve with fresh herbs and salt or with garlicky blistered tomatoes.

For the garlicky blistered tomatoes with thyme:

1. Set a large frying pan on high heat. Once very hot, add the whole cherry tomatoes and olive oil. Give the pan a toss to coat the tomatoes in oil, then cover with a lid set slightly ajar so steam can escape. Cook for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes burst, blister and blacken. Cut off the heat, set the lid off to the side, then stir in the minced garlic, thyme and salt. The ambient heat will cook the garlic and marry the flavors together. Before serving stir in lemon pepper. Serve hot.

Almond ricotta (ravioli filling)

Active prep time: 5 mins · Inactive prep time: 30 mins · Cook time: 0 mins · Makes 1 ¼ cup almond ricotta

Tips: For a very smooth ricotta, soak almonds overnight.

• 1 cup almonds
• 2 tbsp virgin olive oil
• 5-6 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp mellow white miso paste
• 1/2 tsp white pepper or Lemon Pepper
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup packed basil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

1. Set the almonds in a medium bowl. Cover with hot water and soak for minimum 30 minutes. Once soaked, use your hands to slip the almond skins off of the blanched almonds. Discard skins.
2. Add everything to a blender: blanched almonds, olive oil, water, miso, white pepper or Lemon Pepper, apple cider vinegar, basil and sea salt. Blend until semi-smooth, like a rough paste. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

This post is sponsored by Mountain Rose Herbs. Thank you for supporting the brands that support this site!