tagged: balsamic reduction, clean food, eggplant, meatless meals, meatless monday, pasta

Meatless Monday!

Posted by Erika in rad*kitchen

Hi folks!  We’re back again for our regularly scheduled round of supper sans flesh.  I have to keep the chatting to a minimum, as the post is going to be a long one.  Here’s a pic of the finished product to start….to keep you motivated to reach the finish.  It’s really not as bad as all that, just several parts.  And we’re off:

Aubergine Tortelloni

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen

Pasta Dough:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup semolina flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt

5 lg omega 3 egg yolks

2 whole omega 3 eggs

1 teaspoon olive oil

 1 tablespoon water

 Combine flours and salt:

Make well in the center of the dry ingredients and add your eggs, oil and water

Using your hand, break yolks and begin to gently swirl center ingredients together.  Do not mix in with rest of flour, rather let the dry ingredients naturally incorporate by being pulled into the center by the liquid.  This takes a few minutes and don’t try to rush or the dough will be lumpy.

Once dough has come together and has fully incorporated almost all of the dry, you will need to turn it out onto a counter to start kneading.  The kneading process should pick up the rest of the dry ingredients and then you can continue kneading for about 4-6 minutes…Don’t worry if it takes longer, the dough will be fine. 

Once finished kneading, double wrap the dough and refrigerate at least one hour or until needed.  This can be done a day ahead.

Aubergine (Eggplant) filling

6 cups, peeled, diced eggplant

1 ½ cups diced roasted red pepper

½ cup minced red onion

2 cloves roasted garlic

2 teaspoons chopped capers

1 tablespoon chopped sundried tomato

2 teaspoons honey

balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

In saucepan, start 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil, add onions and garlic cloves and sweat over medium low heat.  Gently smash the garlic cloves to break them up.  Add the sundried tomatoes and let go until the onions are nearly translucent.

Then add eggplant and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, as that will help the eggplant to release water.  Cook over low-medium heat, until eggplant starts to turn soft.  Add roasted red peppers and continue to cook until eggplant becomes completely soft.

Deglaze the pan with a good splash of balsmaic vinegar, maybe 2 tablespoons or so, add capers and honey and transfer to bowl to chill.

(I love it when the steam fogs up my lens)

Remove pasta from fridge and cut in half.  Flatten by hand and run through pasta roller at 1.  Continue passing through roller at each number up to 5.  Lay out on *lightly* floured counter and use large round cutter to make pasta circles.

Remove circles and reserve dough scraps to re-roll.  Take a circle and place about 2 teaspoons of filling along top half, leaving enough of an edge to pinch closed.  Wet a finger and run along half the outside edge so it will seal.  Fold other half over top half and firmly press dough edges together, making sure not to leave any pockets open.

Gently fold over the top edge:

Wrap around finger with the flap facing out until you can pinch the corners together.  Seal with a dab of water, if necessary.

Set onto parchment or wax paper on a plate or tray until ready to cook off.  These also freeze well, just freeze on tray, then transfer to freezer bag.  Freeze in uncooked state.

Here are all my little babies, waiting to hit the boiling water

To cook, bring water to a rolling boil, and gently lower a few into the pot.  Cook for 7-8 minutes and scoop out with a slotted spoon or spider.  Repeat with remainder.  Be careful not to overcrowd the pot or they will stick together and rip open.  Serve immediately with sauce of your choice.  I served this with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction made by reducing about 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar until it was practically a syrup.

And VOILA!  Meatless Monday …enjoy!