Patty’s Raw Italian Feast

As you might now, for a couple of months we've had the pleasure of Patty Maher living with us and working for us. She just got offered a $100k/year job here locally, and I can't compete, so the kids are saying goodbye to our very own Mary Poppins.

You don't have to say goodbye to her, though. She asked, as she was leaving, if she could have one of my Blendtec blenders she'd fallen in love with, in exchange for developing a recipe for my readers every week for a year, and sending photos. We struck a deal. Watch the blog for that. She's so creative in the kitchen!

I wanted Patty to have a Blendtec anyway; it's the most important thing to have in your whole-foods kitchen. I can't go a day without it. And Patty had a terrifying diagnosis at the age of 40, so nutrition is critical for her.

She not only lost lots of weight eating a mostly raw, plant-based diet, but she is also now pharmaceutical-free with her Multiple Sclerosis and living an active, productive life without significant pain or disability. She used to have to take a handful of painkillers just to get out of bed.

I'm in Europe studying at cancer clinics for nearly 3 weeks of November, and home for only 5 days before doing a Vegas/St. George/SoCal speaking tour. But when I get back and my kids and I settle into real life again---WAY too much travel this fall---we have Gamelia coming to live with us. She's another Level III Raw Chef from Berkeley, a friend of Patty's who also interned at CHI. She, too, has a great healing story that includes losing 80 lbs. eating raw vegan, and getting off the couch where she had no energy, and becoming a runner.

Meantime, Patty has shared with us a delicious and healthy Italian Feast. These aren't the usual easy recipes you can usually expect from GreenSmoothieGirl. In fact, this feast is every bit as much work as Thanksgiving dinner. But they're beautiful and delicious, and the Raw Gelato is easy, at least.

Photos are by Janne Larson. Patty made us this lovely raw lasagna before she left us. We will miss her!

Patty’s Gourmet Raw Living Italian Feast

Patty’s Living Italian Bread

serves 30-35 people

Ingredients

• 2 cups sprouted wheat berries (allow berries to soak for eight hours, then rinse and sprout for 24 hours or until they have small tails)
• 1 cup almond flour (I make my almond flour by grinding in a blender the dehydrated pulp leftover from making almond milk)
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh basil
• ½ tbsp organic baking soda
• ½ bulb of garlic cloves chopped coarsely
• ¼ cup olive oil

Directions

1. Process all ingredients until very thoroughly blended with no lumps (about 15 to 20 minutes, shutting off the processor for about one minute every five so it doesn’t overheat).
2. Spread out into a 1/4 –inch-high square on dehydrator trays covered with non-stick sheets. Score and dehydrate at 110 degrees for about 18 to 20 hours, flipping after about 10 hours for even dehydration.
3. Break apart bread slices once garlic bread is desired consistency and brush with Patty’s Yummy Italian Butter.
4. Put bread slices back into the dehydrator for about an hour. Serve warm.

Yummy Italian Butter

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 4 cloves of garlic

Directions

Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender and enjoy.

Patty’s Rawcotta Italian Cheese

Ingredients

• 8 cups soaked and rinsed cashews
• 1 cup rejuvelac
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dill
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 tsp basil

Directions

1. Blend until extremely smooth in a high-speed blender.
2. Place in a nut and seed milk bag and hang at room temperature for about 18 hours to ferment (using a bowl underneath to catch drips).

Patty’s Raw Polenta

Serves 30

Ingredients

• organic extra sweet corn
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/3 cup rejuvelac
• 2 tomatoes
• 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• ½ cup almond flour (see recipe for Patty’s Living Italian Bread for info on almond flour)
• 1 cup soaked cashews

Directions

1. Process all ingredients in a food processor until extra creamy.
2. Place in a shallow bowl or pie plate.
3. (optional) Garnish with portabella mushrooms marinated in vinegar, oil, and garlic
4. Warm for 18 to 20 hours in dehydrator at 105 degrees and serve warm.

Chef’s Note: I like to serve this with a side-bowl of Patty’s Favorite Italian Sauce that has been warmed for two or three hours in the dehydrator at 105 degrees.

Patty’s Italian Portabellas

Ingredients

• 54 oz portabella mushrooms
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 bulb garlic

Directions

1. Blend all ingredients except mushrooms, then pour mixture into a bowl with mushrooms that have been rinsed, cleaned, and chopped.
2. Marinate for one to two hours.
3. Strain. Place mushrooms onto non-stick-sheet covered dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 105 for 18 hours or until crispy.
4. Use as topping for lasagna or in other Italian dishes.

Patty’s Super Strawberry-Ginger Gelato

Ingredients

• 3 cups cashews
• 4 pints strawberries
• 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• 2 inches fresh ginger
• 1 to 2 cups coconut nectar
• 6-10 cups of purified water
• Fresh basil

Directions

• Blend 3 cups of cashews, ginger, sea salt and 4 1/2 cups of water in a high-speed blender. When blending, add the water slowly to achieve the desired consistency.
• Pour cashew-ginger milk into ice-cube trays or small Ziploc baggies and freeze overnight. If you opt for ice cube trays, cover them with plastic wrap so your milk doesn’t take on the flavors of your freezer.
• Clean and slice strawberries and freeze overnight in Ziploc baggies.
• Take out a large mixing bowl and a high speed blender the next day when you are ready to make the gelato.
• Combine and blend packages of strawberries and cashew milk with coconut nectar to taste. You will probably make 4-6 batches in your blender.
• Pour each batch of gelato into the large mixing bowl. Whisk the gelato so the batch is even.
• Scoop into one-cup servings in clear plastic or glass cups and set on trays.
• Garnish each serving with a small, washed sprig of fresh basil.
• Cover tray of gelato servings with plastic wrap and set back in freezer until dinner is over
• Serve and enjoy!

Patty’s Grape Rejuvelac Wine

Ingredients

• 5- 6 large bunches of seedless grapes (all red except one white)
• 4 cups rejuvelac
• 6-8 cups water
• 4-6 pitted dates

Directions

1. Thoroughly wash grapes and remove them from their stems. Blend in a high-speed blender with one cup of water.
2. Strain grape mixture very well through a nut and seed milk bag. It will be a thick mixture; you'll need to clean the bag a few times to get all of the juice.
3. Pour one cup of grape juice mixture back into high-speed blender with 4 pitted dates and blend until dates are thoroughly blended.
4. Add two cups of rejuvelac and blend some more.
5. Combine grape juice with mixture from blender in large bowl or jar and whisk. Add water slowly to taste.

Patty’s Favorite Italian Sauce

Ingredients

• 20 roma tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 2 cups dehydrated tomato slices
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 bulb of garlic, cloves chopped
• 2 tbsp fennel
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tbsp paprika
• Water as necessary for desired consistency

Directions

1. Wash and chop tomatoes and basil.
2. Blend all ingredients in high-speed blender, adding water as necessary for desired consistency.
3. Pour into a large bowl and whisk vigorously.

Simone and Sheila’s It’s-So-Delicious-Your-Brains-Are-Going-To-Fall-Out Parmesan Cheese

Serves 10

Ingredients

• ¼ cup raw cashews (soaked for three hours to remove enzyme inhibitors, rinsed and dehydrated at 105 degrees for about eight hours until crunchy)
• ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds (preferably soaked for six hours, rinsed, sprouted for one day until they have small tails, and dehydrated until crunchy at 105 degrees for about eight hours)
• ½ cup golden flax seeds
• 2/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp Himalayan sea salt

Directions

1. Grind flax seeds in mixer or coffee grinder until powdery.
2. Pour all ingredients in a food processor and process on high until it looks, feels, and tastes like parmesan cheese!

Patty’s Favorite Spinach Lasagna

Serves 12 -15

Comment from Robyn: I personally find this recipe too rich and would add layers of raw, thinly sliced cucumbers and take away some of the Italian cheese (which is FABULOUS, but save some of it for dip for more cucumbers later!).

Ingredients

• 6-8 zucchini
• 2 cups coconut nectar
• 6 cups Patty’s Rawcotta Italian Cheese
• 30 ounces of organic baby spiniach
• 6 cups of Patty’s Favorite Italian Sauce
• ½ cup raw parmesan cheese, divided
• 5 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 cup of dehydrated, sliced tomatoes

Directions

1. Slice zucchini into long thin noodle-like slices with a mandolin. Soak in coconut nectar for 20-40 minutes, then drain with a colander, shaking to remove most of the moisture.
2. Spread noodles on a dehydrator tray covered with a non-stick sheet. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for about 12 hours, until dry and a bit crisp.
3. Brush bottom of large lasagna dish with Patty’s Favorite Italian Sauce so noodles won’t stick.
4. Put down a thin layer of noodles. Spread three cups of rawcotta cheese on top of noodles.
5. Rinse spinach and place in large colander on top of larger bowl. Pour 5 cups of boiling water over spinach through the colander so spinach becomes soft and easy to massage.
6. Blend 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup olive oil, and garlic cloves in a blender. Add this blend to a bowl with the softened spinach, massage into the spinach leaves.
7. Pat layer of spinach onto the cheese layer. Top with another layer of rawcotta cheese, followed by a layer of dehydrated tomatoes. Top with Patty's Favorite Italian Sauce.
8. Sprinkle ¼ cup parmesan cheese over the top, then add dehydrated portabella mushrooms.
9. Dehydrate pan of lasagna at 105 degrees for at least two hours and serve warm.

Patty’s Caprese Salad

Ingredients

• 10 tomatoes
• 3 cups fresh basil
• 3 1/4 cups Rawcotta Cheese, divided
• ½ cup Balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• Pinch of salt
• 2 pitted dates
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• Crushed black pepper
• appr. 13 olives (whatever variety you like)

Directions

1. Slice tomatoes and arrange on a large plate or platter
2. Wash and chop basil and cover tomatoes with it, leaving a ring of about ¼ inch red tomatoes on the outside.
3. Mix rawcotta cheese with rosemary. Plop teaspoons full of rawcotta-rosemary cheese onto each tomato at the outside of the plate and then, working into the center of the dish, on some of the tomatoes, forming a nice circle of tomatoes that have cheese on them (probably about 2/3 of the tomatoes will have cheese).
4. Make a simple dressing in your high-speed blender with garlic cloves, vinegar, ¼ cup of rawcotta cheese, pinch of salt and two pitted dates. Drizzle over the dish.
5. Place olives on some of the tomatoes that have cheese.
6. Grind fresh pepper over top of dish.
7. Serve and enjoy!

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