Easy Tortellini
On rainy Sunday’s when I’m stuck indoors... I make pasta! I thought I’d share my super simple go to pasta dough recipe; 1 1/2 cups Type 00 flour, 2 large eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp cold water. This will make enough pasta for 4 generous servings (double or triple the quantities if you want to!) Here I made tortellini, filled with in-season silverbeet, lemon, ricotta and parmesan. Feel free to swap out my tortellini filling for another of your choice!
INGREDIENTS
For the pasta dough:
1 1/2 cups Type 00 four
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cold water
For the filling:
3 cups of silverbeet or spinach (steamed)
250g ricotta
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg
salt and pepper, to taste
For the sauce:
75g butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper
flaky salt
1 sprig rosemary / or thyme
3/4 cup grated parmesan
INSTRUCTIONS
To make the filling:
Add steamed silverbeet and garlic to a blander and pulse until a thick paste. Add to a medium bowl. Add the remaining filling ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Taste for seasoning, then cover with cling wrap and set aside in the fridge until ready to fill pasta.
To make the pasta:
Add pasta dough ingredients to a large bowl. Mix with a spoon, then bring together with your hands to form a dough. Wrap in cling wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for at least 1/2 an hour, or until your ready to use it.
Set up a pasta machine, and divide dough into 4 equal pieces. One at a time (wrap up rest of dough while you work on one piece) roll it out with a rolling pin until 4 cms thick. Next work the dough through the pasta machine on the various thickness settings, until you have a long piece of pasta that is paper thin.
Once the pasta is rolled out dust thoroughly with semolina or flour to prevent it from drying out. Using a large cookie cutter, cut circles about 7cms wide from the pasta sheet.
Prepare a glass or bowl of cool water beside your pasta workstation.
Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each pasta circle. Dip your finger in the glass of water and run it along the edge of the circle so that the pasta can stick to itself.
Fold the dough over itself to form a half moon shape, then pick up the two corners and press them together with your fingertips to seal the tortellini. Dust generously with flour or semolina while you work on shaping the others.
To make the sauce and assembly:
In a shallow dutch oven or large saucepan on medium heat, add oil, butter, rosemary, black pepper, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, wile the butter foams and then browns. Turn heat down to low.
In a large pot of heavily salted boiling water, cook pasta stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes. Take one tortellini out and test for doneness.
After approximately 4 minutes, remove pasta from the water and using a slotted spoon add it to the large saucepan. Add 2 ladlefuls of the pasta water, and the parmesan, and gently stir (or toss) until the parmesan is melted and sauce is creamy, glossy and emulsified.
Serve tortellini seasoned with more cracked pepper and parmesan. Please enjoy!