Yield: 16 shells or 6-8 servings
(Note: I only made a half recipe for the photo)
I always find pumpkin ravioli with sage butter and similar dishes on restaurant menus utterly seductive but, alas, they are never vegan. Wanting to make a streamlined version at home for weeknight meals, I decided on stuffed shells.
The filling of Silken tofu and pumpkin puree with sauteed onion and garlic bakes into a luscious custard in pasta shell “cups.” A few additional ingredients give the savory-sweet custard a flavor reminiscent of a pumpkin-ricotta mixture. Nestling the shells into my Veggie Marinara Sauce, tangy but tempered by a hint of maple syrup, creates the perfect balance of flavors. Optional sauteed mushrooms deepen the earthy flavor. And a luxurious drizzle of sage butter over the top–with all its salty, nutty, herb-y goodness–is exactly the right counterpoint to the other flavors.
After a half hour, this dish emerges beautiful, fragrant and hearty from the oven, its flavors and textures melded into a nutritional and satisfying main course in need only of a green vegetable to complete the meal.
For this recipe and some 170+ more,
I invite you to purchase my first cookbook:
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A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes
Vegan Heritage Press
Spring 2011
10 comments
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November 8, 2009 at 10:19 pm
This sounds heavenly! And your description is making my mouth water all over my keyboad…
November 8, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I'm so glad! They really are, and now I'm having second thoughts about promising them to a friend whose mom lives with him. 🙂 Not really, but I should have made a whole recipe! Clean up that keyboard and get to cookin'!
November 10, 2009 at 1:57 am
These look ridiculously amazing! Wow!
November 10, 2009 at 6:18 am
Thanks! I really think they are. As I said in a comment above, I shared them with my friend, whose mom lives with him, for dinner last night and I can't wait to hear the verdict today.
This recipe represents the second version, as the filling wasn't savory enough the first time. And because I drizzled the sage butter on at the beginning of the baking period, it was overcooked. So the sauteed onion and garlic did the trick for the first challenge and drizzling the butter on just for the last 5 minutes of baking solved the other issue.
Enjoy!
November 10, 2009 at 3:42 pm
This looks great! I am all about sage "butter" lately 🙂
November 10, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Isn't that true? The weather doesn't have to be very cool or for very long and I'm anything with pumpkin or sage. So glad it appealed to you.
November 11, 2009 at 11:04 pm
What a gorgeous fall meal! I think this might make my Thanksgiving table.
November 11, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Thank you for the compliment! It is definitely Thanksgiving-worthy, in my humble opinion. 🙂 But stay tuned, as I've got a whole Thanksgiving menu coming up. I have to wait until it runs in my column in the Virginian-Pilot on November 18, but then I'm free to post it. I think you'll love it. Regardless of what you eat, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
November 16, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I made this yesterday and am eating leftovers for lunch today. This recipe is so amazing even my husband ate it. And it would be perfect for a potluck or dinner party. Thank you!
November 16, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Meat-eating husbands are definitely the barometers–the canaries in the mine shafts–for vegan food! I've never heard whether my friend and his mom, mentioned a few comments back, liked it (which is not like him, but caretaking his mother can be consuming). So I'm glad you are as enthusiastic about it as I am. I'm also pleased that you think it would be appropriate for a dinner party. I'm halfway considering it for Thanksgiving. We do non-traditional thematic feasts and, though we've done Italian, it's time may have come around again. Thanks for writing! I'm so excited that you gave this one a thumb's up.