I was inspired to make a baked pasta dish based on a conversation with my dear oldest friend Laurel, who I was visiting in Berkeley, CA last week. She brought up how much she loved stuffed shells. It made me remember how tasty stuffed shells are – and how I remember them as a favorite treat from childhood. I feel like baked pasta is kind of a New England thing, but maybe it is just an old school Italian restaurant dish (like pre-Batali style).
Anyway, the gluten-free issue is the first hurdle to overcome because I don’t know of any brand that makes a gluten-free vegan giant shell pasta. Instead I used Tinkyada lasagna (really amazing fantastic brown rice pasta that holds up really well to boiling and is delicious). I boiled the lasagna, drained it, and then put it in cold water. I then cut the long lasagna noodles into 3 sections. I then stuffed the lasagna sections with arugula tofu ricotta (see below) and placed them in a casserole dish, which I then covered with pasta sauce. I covered the whole thing half in daiya mozzarella and half in dairy mozzarella (while I am vegan my husband is not and he likes traditional cheese). I also put some tofu ricotta on top, which is the green stuff in the picture. My husband and I ate it up – although if I make this again I would boil the lasagna less in hopes that the pasta would withstand the baking a bit better.
A big bag of arugula was the farm share box contribution to tonight’s dish. I made a tofu ricotta that in the past I have also made with basil. Basically I blended (with my prized cheapo proctor silex hand blender) 1 block of firm tofu, 1 clove of garlic (I could’ve put in more), bag of arugula, cashews (raw and roasted), nutritional yeast, olive oil, and salt/pepper/garlic powder. Stephan said he “really enjoyed” the ricotta.
Veggies used tonight: