Turns out tofu ricotta is better than dairy ricotta for pasta bakes

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 10/21/2020 at 11:59 • Filed to: None

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This past weekend, I had a couple blocks of tofu in the fridge that I needed to use up. Instead of doing the usual stir fry or whatever, I decided to try making tofu ricotta, because I had all the other makings of baked ziti. I didn’t have especially high expectations for the final result, but I’m here to say definitively that even if you’re not a hippie herbivore like me, tofu ricotta is the move for pasta bakes.

Tofu ricotta is simple to make. I used !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! but converted it up to the 18 oz block of tofu I had instead of the 10 oz in the recipe. All you do is whizz up a block of tofu into a paste in a blender or food processor, with lemon juice, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and salt. I have a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that I used to nicely drain the tofu first, but you can do this without draining the tofu as thoroughly as me. I actually added a splash of water back into the mix to get it to the right consistency.

Once I blended up the “ricotta,” things started to look promising. It was super thick and creamy and smooth, unlike dairy ricotta which depending on the kind you get can sometimes be thin, watery and gritty.

The rest of the assembly for this was pretty straightforward. I sauteed some onions, mushrooms & garlic in a skillet, then added a jar of pasta sauce and simmered a bag of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   in the sauce, while I cooked my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in another pot (har har).

After draining the pasta, I removed the cooked meatlessballs from the sauce and sliced them in half. I combined the “ricotta” and sauce, then mixed that mixture up with the pasta, and as a final step folded in the meatlessballs so as to not mash them up. Into the oven for 20 minutes at 350°F, then finished with microplane-grated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

Now, I’m not bullshitting you when I say this: the tofu ricotta produced a far superior pasta bake than I ever achieved with dairy ricotta. It did a much better job of both providing creaminess, and holding the pasta together. The flavor is close enough to dairy ricotta that when combined with tomato sauce, you’d have no idea it was tofu. It just tastes good.

On top of just being culinarily better in this particular use case, there’s a lot less fat in tofu than ricotta. Per 100 gram serving, ricotta has 13g fat, 11g protein, and 174 calories. 100 grams of tofu has 5g fat, 8g protein, and 76 calories. So not only will a pasta bake made with tofu ricotta have significantly better texture and structural integrity than one made with dairy ricotta, you can feel slightly less guilty about gluttonously shoving a big block of it into your face hole.

hillrat > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:11

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Name checks out.

Good stuff, super interesting to me as a guy who cooks for a vegetarian daughter and a wife who is allergic to wheat. Thanks for the tip!!!

Textured Soy Protein > hillrat 10/21/2020 at 12:19

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FYI this hemp pasta is still wheat, with hemp added to the mix. But there are other wheat-free options out there.

hillrat > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:21

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What’s the point of adding the hemp? Better nutrition?

Textured Soy Protein > hillrat 10/21/2020 at 12:22

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Hippie cred + higher protein + omegas

The Snowman > hillrat 10/21/2020 at 12:23

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Oops meant to comment on main post.

The Snowman > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:24

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I don't understand the allure of baked pasta.

MonkeePuzzle > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:34

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Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:42

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I must be living in a cave, I never knew vegan ricotta was a thing.

This seems like a good way to make a slightly healthier lasagna.

Is it a one-to-one swap with dairy ricotta?  

Saracen > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 12:52

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That looks good. I’m on pretty much the opposite diet of yours most of the time. But hey, I’ve lost a lot of weight and my blood pressure (despite having A-fib) is really good.

Mrs. Saracen loves tofu, but since we di scovered lectins wreck her stomach, soy products are right out.

ibRAD > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 13:21

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Those hippies are ripping you off at a rate of 2g/lb!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 13:43

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I read that last one as “mega gas”.  Might still hold true...

Textured Soy Protein > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! 10/21/2020 at 14:08

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Pretty much a 1:1 swap. I used one 18 oz block of tofu with a jar of pasta sauce that was probably 24-26 oz. I’ve seen baked ziti recipes with anywhere from 1 cup to a whole 15 oz tub of ricotta in them. This worked out well because I didn’t have any mozzarella-type product, so the whole block of tofu worth of ricotta acted as a good binder.

If I were doing it over again, vegan mozzarella stuff really ain’t that great anyway, so I’d probably not mess with it, but I would probably add some more tomatoes than only  the 1 jar of sauce. I’d say with the 18 oz block of tofu I’d shoot for a roughly 2:1 ratio of tomato:tofu.

Textured Soy Protein > The Snowman 10/21/2020 at 14:08

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Uhhh have you never eaten lasagna or baked ziti? 

DipodomysDeserti > The Snowman 10/21/2020 at 14:17

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Are you an alien?

The Snowman > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 14:45

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Lasagna can be very good but most are bad. Baked ziti and other al forno pastas j ust don’t do it for me. There are so many good pastas but they all come from a stove top.

The Snowman > DipodomysDeserti 10/21/2020 at 14:45

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An italian alien...

Textured Soy Protein > The Snowman 10/21/2020 at 15:34

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I think a lot of American palates are inclined to like any combination of mass quantities of cheese and starch baked in a casserole type creation.

What about baked pasta don’t you like? For me I find them blah when they’re just a mess of mediocre ricotta. 

DipodomysDeserti > The Snowman 10/21/2020 at 15:55

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La mia nona would think there’s something wrong with you. Man gia!

The Snowman > Textured Soy Protein 10/21/2020 at 15:55

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Baked pasta tastes like bad leftovers reheated in a microwave. The moisture is too low and the noodles are always overcooked. Less is more with pasta and baked pasta is just more more more.