Vegan Ricotta... Outstanding!

This is simply an awesome substitute for ricotta made out of tofu. Use it in lasagna, manicotti, or whatever else you like. It's so close to the real thing even your staunchest carnivores will have a hard time figuring out it's vegan.

Ingredients
1 pound firm tofu, pressed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
handful fresh basil leaves, chopped fine
dash fresh black pepper

Directions
You should first press the tofu. Place the block of tofu in a pan, pie plate, or shallow/wide bowl, and place something else similar on top. Add a few pounds on top and let it sit. I use two pans and an old 10 pound dumbell plate on top, but whatever you have handy will work. After about 20 minutes you'll see that about a 1/2 cup or so of the juice has been pressed out of the tofu.

In a large bowl, mush the pressed tofu up with your CLEAN hands, until it's crumbly.

Add lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and basil. Squeeze through your fingers repeatedly until it reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese. May take 2-5 minutes.

Add olive oil, stir with fork. Add nutritional yeast and combine all ingredients well. Cover and refigerate until ready to use.

Use this instead of ricotta filling in your favorite Italian dishes. It's simply outstanding, really!