Meatless Monday: Valentine Ravioli with Goat Cheese and Walnut Filling

Hello Darlings!

Valentine’s Day is creeping us on us way faster than I had anticipated! This year has just flown by so far. In honor of this very pink and red holiday of love I thought this Meatless Monday should be heart themed! Now, full disclosure, when I first dreamed these darling little hearts up I had imagined them as being the deep red of beets that colored them, but the combination of semolina and boiled water was not my friend, and they turned out a very pretty peachy-pink instead. Adding red pasta sauce or switching the semolina with white flour will give the red more oomph!

For the Filling:

Instructions:

1. In your food processor (if you don’t have one you can do all this chopping and mixing by hand, it will just be a bit time consuming) add the walnuts and parsley, chop until fine. Add the goat cheese in chunks and blend until everything is uniformly incorporated. Set aside.

2. On a clean work surface that does not stain (Beet juice is very pigmented) mound your flour and create a divot in the top of the mound like a volcano. Crack the egg in into this hole.

3. Slowly work the flour and salt into the egg, creating the pasta dough.
4. For this step I would highly recommend wearing a pair of kitchen gloves as beet juice will stain your hands! Add the beet juice (either freshly pressed or bottled) to the pasta dough, kneading until the dough is a uniform bright red.

5. Using either a pasta machine or a rolling pin roll out the dough into thin sheets. Using the cookie cutter, cut out heart shaped pasta pieces. Continue to gather extra dough and roll it out until all dough has been used.

6. Add a dollop of the goat cheese walnut filling to the center of one half of the heart cutouts.
7. Place a second cutout on top of each filling-coated piece and secure by taking a fork and pressing around the edge of each ravioli.

8. Add the raviolis into a pot of gently boiling water and let boil for 8-10 minutes or until pasta is tender.

9. Toss with olive oil or pasta sauce and enjoy your Valentine’s Day meal!

Whether you are single, have a partner, or even don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day I hope you have a great day!

Remember to follow me on  , Follow @ChickadeeSays and like ChickadeeSays on Facebook to get updates and sneak peeks!