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Thursday 22 September 2016

Ricotta and almond courgette ravioli with a crushed-tomato salsa


Yes, a clever way with raw courgette/zucchini, wrapped around ricotta with a punchy relish! This is gluten-free and very low-carb. Yellow courgettes are ideal if you want your ravioli to resemble the real thing, but green ones work perfectly well. It is important to make the courgette strips as thin as possible so they stay in shape when folded. You can use ground almonds in the filling if you prefer, but it is worth going to the effort of blitzing toasted flaked almonds for the extra flavour they bring.

Serves Four
INGREDIENTS
2 large courgettes/zucchini
25ml extra-virgin olive oil
100g toasted flaked almonds
250g ricotta
50g vegetarian hard cheese, finely grated
small handful of fresh basil leaves, finely sliced
75g wild rocket

For the salsa
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp red-wine vinegar
1 shallot, peeled
1 garlic clove, peeled
300g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, quartered
large handful of fresh basil leaves, finely sliced

METHOD
Slice the courgettes/zucchini into thin ribbons using a mandolin or peeler. You need 40, each at least 12½cm long.

Toss the ribbons in a bowl with the oil until evenly coated, and set aside to soften.

For the salsa, put the oil and vinegar in a medium-sized bowl. Finely chop the shallot and garlic, add them to the bowl and whisk everything together. Season, then toss through the tomatoes.

Using a potato masher, roughly mash them up a little so the juices come out, making a sauce but leaving lots of texture. Finally, stir in the basil. Set aside.

Blitz 75g of the flaked almonds in a mini-blender to create fine crumbs. Tip into a medium-sized bowl and add the ricotta, hard cheese and basil. Stir well and season.

Lay two pieces of courgette/zucchini criss-crossed on a clean board. Spoon a tablespoon of ricotta mixture in the centre.

Wrap the two ends of the bottom piece of courgette/zucchini over the filling, followed by the two ends of the top piece, to enclose. Turn the parcel seam-side down.

Repeat to make 20 parcels, arranging five on each serving plate as you go. These can be made up to two days ahead. If making in advance, place them on a large tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

When ready to serve, spoon the salsa over the ravioli. Pile some rocket leaves on top, scatter with the remaining almonds and finish with a twist of pepper.

Above photo credit - Cristian Barnett.
Original recipe idea/words by Sharon Hearne-Smith here

Read more about courgettes here

All the best Jan

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks good and sounds like a mouthful.

Summer said...

I love that this is all vegetarian! Looks colourful and delish ♥

summerdaisycottage.blogspot.com

Lisa said...

Looks delicious!

eileeninmd said...

Hello, sounds like a great recipe for zucchini. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!

JFM said...

That looks so delicious...especially on that beautiful plate!

You always have wonderfully, healthy postings, Jan...thank you~

Martha said...

So many simple yet delicious ingredients! This is a wonderful recipe.

Jo said...

A great recipe to add to the repertoire when there's a lot of courgettes to be used up, it looks very tasty too.

Connie said...

If you lived I our home, I would stop cooking completely and turn my kitchen over to you . . . Yum!

happyone said...

Looks good but I love the plate the food is sitting on. : )
I've lost count of all the zucchini we got from the garden this year. It's been a great year for it!!

Anonymous said...

This looks and sounds delicious.

This N That said...

Looks yummy..not to difficult..pretty plate

DeniseinVA said...

That looks not only delicious but very pleasing to the eyes Jan.

Debbie said...

this looks so good. especially the salsa, so light and fresh!!!

Gail said...

We've been blessed with cucumbers and yellow squash from the garden this year. I find myself slipping either or both in several recipes. My nephews arrived unexpectedly and after a long energetic day I mentioned I would throw something together for dinner. The guys went about their business until time to eat. I had no meat for my pasta sauce (I know!) but the rest was very healthy. I used roasted cubed cucumbers in lieu of meat. It was good. The nephews bragged on it and were pleasantly surprised not to get sandwiches!

I'm glad you visit, Jan. Sometimes I get lucky on the photos. I keep trying.

We have two poison spiders in our area: Black Widow and Brown Recluse. I try to eliminate them from the house. The others eat my flies...teasing. I bet your grandchildren probably have spiders named Fred too. That is such a cute story.

Have a blessed weekend.

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

A wonderful and healthy way to use all that zucchini in the garden! Looks beautiful, too! x Karen

Bob Bushell said...

OH, LOVE IT, MY DIET IS WETTISH, YUMMY.

The Happy Whisk said...

Pretty cool.