Great British Menu ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Black and White Vegan Ravioli
Plant based ravioli made with two laminated pasta doughs, one white and one blackened with charcoal, rolled and layered to mimic a strip of film reel. The egg free dough is strengthened by lamination. Filled with a bespoke vegan cheese built from cashews, dehydrated dashi powder and nutritional yeast for umami depth. Served in a courgette flower sauce (built on a vegetable nage) split with roasted tomato oil for a two tone finish.
Lawrence: "I'm doing a black and white ravioli, so it'll mimic the film reel. It's going to be stuffed with a vegan cheese, almost like an I can't believe it's not ricotta. But then I've got a courgette flower sauce that I'm going to split with the roasted tomato oil."
Lawrence: "Usually you wouldn't make a ravioli without putting an egg into it. It's quite sticky. It's quite hard to work with, but I feel like someone would eat this and not recognise it as vegan pasta."
Lawrence: "A lot of trial and error to try to get it to the nice consistency. Cashews give a nice bit of fat into it, the dehydrated dashi powder and some nutritional yeast. So that gives it the nice funky, cheesy flavour."
Lawrence: "Layers of the pasta dough are rolled together, laminated, and it gives it that extra strength and that extra elasticity that you're going to be missing from an egg dough."
VETERAN ROUND: Sally Abbe — Score: 7/10 Sally Abbe: "I think that this is a brilliant link to the brief. The pasta was skillfully made, but it was a little bit chewy. The vegan filling was tasty. I think it could have just done with a little grating of lemon zest and a bit of zing. On its own, the courgette flower sauce actually had a really delicious flavour. However, I think you did add way too much of the roasted tomato oil. It kind of overwhelmed the sauce. With some tweaks, I think it could score a lot higher." Sally Abbe: "Get that sauce right. I really think you could score quite highly." Peer comments at the pass: Lawrence self-scored 7. Kristen: "He accomplished something really impressive with the cheese. I might give it an eight." Callum: "I think that the charcoal is hard to go through, strong it." Marion: "I'll give it an 8. I think it's a lovely dish."
BANQUET FINAL: Skipped the lamination this time, which had been overworking the gluten and leaving the pasta too thick. Upped the flavour in the fermented cashew vegan cheese filling. New romesco built with peppers, sunflower seeds and harissa. New sunflower petal sauce. New furikake of chopped popcorn, wakame seaweed and nori powder. Served on new plates rather than the original film reel cases, which became table decorations instead. Small popcorn tubs on the side.
Reception at the pass. Marly Siu (guest): "I think it looks amazing. I also really like this plate." Tom Kerridge: "Last time it was served on the reel case, it was a bit wobbly to eat, all a bit clunky. Now we've got three different moments coming together. The pasta is such a hard thing to get right, and I think it's quite a big portion of something that's perhaps a little thick." Lorna McNee: "I agree. The pasta just kind of pulled it apart there in the centre. It's very chewy. But I absolutely love the romesco. I love that flavour." Nikita: "Vegan pasta, that's a really good texture for not having any egg in it." Phil Wang: "It's a huge improvement. Looks better. Tastes better. The romesco is really delish." Marli Siu: "I love the popcorn. That's really yummy." Cieran: "I think it's really solid. Delicious food." Lorna: "The furikake is really nice on there. It gives a lot of fun and some texture to the dish. I feel the vegan cheese filling is much better as well." Tom on the whole: "It's a good dish, but it's not the all singing, all dancing superstar dish."
Final result: 7th place. Lorna McNee: "Your changes were really well received, and I absolutely love the addition of the romesco. It was beautiful." Lawrence: "I thought I would be a little bit higher up the list, to be honest."
Would you like us to create a recipe to match this dish?
We try to create several recipes every day, and we'd love to prioritize a recipe for you. Just fill out the form and watch your inbox - no cost, no catch.
Your request has been submitted
An error occurred. Try again later
