Cashew ‘Ricotta’ Stuffed Shells
From time to time we get the craving for old fashion All American comfort foods — the kind of meals we grew up on in the 70s and 80s, before America realized that we needed to watch our collective weight. For example, for the past few months, I have had the reoccurring desire to make stuffed shells.
Unsurprisingly, most of these All American comfort foods are loaded with cheese and dairy products – America loves its cheese – and stuffed shells is clearly no exception. This is not the easiest vegan meal to conceptualize (the shells are stuffed with cheese, right?), but with a few clever alterations, this recipe came out great.
Rather than turning to soft tofu for a ricotta like filling, I used raw cashews to make a rich fluffy stuffing for the shells. I’ve been fascinated with the possibility of cashew cheese since the Dr Cow tree nut cheese turned up in the Coop last year. A little Internet research and some experimenting resulted in this satisfying filling. The addition of a couple Field Roast Italian sausages, mushrooms and zucchini bulked it all up.
I’m not much of a big fan of thin ragu-style tomato sauce, so I used a chunkier sauce, adding carrots for sweetness and Spanish olives for savory flavor.
Surprisingly, pasta shells are hard to find in Brooklyn. Apparently, Brooklyn’s more “gourmet” grocery emporiums eschew this childhood staple. I finally located them at the Key Foods on 5th Ave in Park Slope.
This recipe was all together a little time consuming but well worth it. If you have time to make the sauce and/or filling the day before, you should.
CHUNKY TOMATO SAUCE
2 cans of 28oz chunky tomato sauce
1 large sweet onion chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic minced with a pinch of sea salt (see below for explanation)
1 cup of shredded carrots
1 cup of cremini mushrooms chopped
1/2 cup of Spanish olives with pimentos finally chopped
2 Tbs of olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed rep pepper
2 tsp of ” Italian seasoning” mix
1 tsp of black pepper
- In a medium size sauce pan heat olive oil on medium heat. Add onions and sauté until they are translucent about 7-8 minutes.
- While onions are cooking crush and chop garlic. Add a pinch of sea salt. Chop and rub with the side of the knife then add to the onions. Here’s a tutorial if you’ve never tried this technique. This helps bring out more of the garlic oils adding more flavor to the sauce. it should look like a thick paste.
- Add cremini mushrooms and let them sweat for at least a minute. Then add the shredded carrots and chopped olives with pimentos and continue to stir on medium heat. Everything should turn slightly orange from the carrots. Continue to stir for a few more minutes.
- Add crushed red pepper, Italian seasoning and black pepper and stir through.
- Add in the 2 cans of tomato sauce. Bring the heat down to LOW! I simmered with a cover on for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
CASHEW RICOTTA
1 cup of raw cashews
1/4 cup of olive oil.
1/4 cup of lemon juice (save the lemons rinds to zest into the pan)
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of vegan mozzarella style cheese, (1/2 cup for ricotta mix the other 1/2 cup to cover the top of the dish)
1 bunch of chives minced, save a small bowl of chives to sprinkle on top while serving
- Rinse cashews and soak in a bowl of warm water for at least 2 hours. If you can start them the night before that’s better, the longer they soak the better the flavor. Save 2Tbs of water for blending.
- Add cashews, oil, lemon juice, water and salt to food processor. Blend until smooth 4-5 minutes. scoop out and place in a medium size bowl. Mix in the vegan cheese and 3/4 of the chives. Set aside.
VEGAN STUFFED SHELLS
One box of jumbo pasta shells
1 zucchini chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup of cremini mushrooms chopped into small pieces
2 Italian flavored Field Roast sausages chopped up to small pieces
1 Tbs of olive oil
1 Sauce Recipe above
1 Cashew Ricotta filling recipe above
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Boil a pot of well salted and oiled water and cook shells al dente, about 8 minutes. (note: the shells will fall apart if over cooked) Let cool so they can be handled easily while stuffing.
- Heat oil in skillet or braising pan. I used a braising pan here to reduce the number of pans I would have to wash. This step also helps oil the pan before it gets filled with all the shells.
- Add the mushrooms, sausages and zucchini. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until the sausages are browned.
- Transfer all the veggies and sausage out of braising pan and into the medium bowl with the cashew ricotta. Stir until everything is mixed all together really well.
- Zest the halves of lemon rind around the pan. If you are not using the same pan that you sauteed the veggies in, add a spray of oil.
- Spoon in enough sauce to cover the bottom of your pan.
- Fill each shell up with about 1Tbs of filling. I started a lining the shells up in a circular pattern but this all depends on what kind of baking dish you use.
- Once the dish is filled cover the shells with sauce. I took the remaining few shells and tore them in half and scattered them around the top of the dish. cover with the remaining vegan cheese.
- Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle the remaining chives around the top.
serves 4-6
Now it’s been storming since Saturday night and we have a few episodes of Games of Thrones to catch up on so I figured this would be the perfect comfort meal to go with the weather and our entertainment for the evening.
