Tortelloni al sugo

RECIPE

Makes 4 serves - Preparation time 1 hour - cooking time 40 min

Ingredients

Dough:

• 180g 00 flour + 20g semolina wheat flour (or 200g all-purpose flour)

• 2 eggs

Tomato sauce:

• - 3 tablespoons olive oil

• - 1 onion, sliced

• - 700g tomato sauce

• - 1 tablespoons chopped thyme

• - 1 fresh red chili, optional

• - 200ml water

• - ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg, grated

• - Salt and black pepper to taste

• - A sprig of fresh basil, torn leaves, or fresh flat leaves parsley, chopped(optional)

• - Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated.

Filling:

• - 450g whole milk ricotta

• - ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

• - ½ cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated

• - ½ teaspoon nutmeg, grated

• - 1 lemon zest, finely grated

• - salt and pepper, to taste

Tools needed:

• - a pasta machine

• - a Pasta Bike or Pasta cutting wheel, if you don’t have them you can do it with a sharp knife and a ruler.

• - a large pot for boiling pasta and a pan to cook the sauce

A Pasta Bike or Pasta cutter wheel (available here) is an adjustable rolling cutter with several wheels. It is good for cutting large sheets into smaller shapes where uniformity is the key – cutting out many tiny squares for tortelli.

If you don’t have any of the above a sharp knife and a ruler will do, but it will be much slower!

MAKING THE DOUGH

To make the pasta dough from scratch, check my guide here.

MAKING THE SAUCE

While the dough is resting prepare the sauce:

Heat a large pot until hot, then add the olive oil. Add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes or until softened.

Add the tomato sauce, thyme and chili, stirring well. Add the water and bring to the boil.

Finally add nutmeg and salt to taste. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add more water if you think that the sauce is reducing too much.

Remove from the heat and set aside till needed.

MAKING THE FILLING

Mix in a bowl all the ingredients and rest in the fridge until needed.

ROLLING THE DOUGH

You will need a flat surface – a table or a bench should do.

Attach your pasta machine to the edge so your pasta, once rolled will land on the working area.

After 30 minutes of resting, dust your work surface with some of the extra flour, take a portion of dough the size of a large orange and press it flat against the surface with your fingertips.

Set the pasta machine at its widest setting, (usually '0, but it depends on the kind of machine you use).

Pass the dough through the rollers once, fold the edges of the resulting strip in, so the new dough size becomes 1/3 your rolled width.

Repeat this step on your widest setting 5 or so times , until your dough has a rectangular shape and is smooth. Lightly dust the dough with flour if it is sticky.

Narrow the setting of the pasta machine by 1 setting (eg. to position '1') and roll the dough through.

Continue passing the dough through the rollers without folding, reducing the thickness by 1 setting each time until it reaches the desired thickness.

Around setting 7 out of 9 will be appropriate. This will depend on your machine.

It should now be very delicate, elastic to the touch and slightly translucent.

SHAPING TORTELLONI

Using a sharp knife and a ruler or a pasta cutter wheel, cut the pasta into 5 cm squares.

Place cherry sized bits of filling in their center. Take one square, fold it in half, corner to corner, to get a triangle. Gently press to seal the edges. Slightly fold the sides over the filling, then roll the corners around one finger at the bottom and press to seal.

Proceed till the end.

COOKING TORTELLONI

Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil. Cook tortelloni for about 5 minutes.

Drain, toss with sauce, garnish with basil or parsley. Sprinkle Parmigiano Reggiano on top and serve.

TORTELLINI, TORTELLONI OR TORTELLACCI what's the difference?

The size and the filling!

TORTELLINI are tiny and they are stuffed with meat. They are served in a brodo (soup).

TORTELLONI are based on a 5-6 cm square of pasta. They are stuffed with cheese traditionally served in a sage and butter sauce.

TORTELLACCI, are based on a 7-10 cm square of pasta. They are stuffed with cheese traditionally served in a sage and butter sauce.

Find more details about Tortellini & Co here.

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Hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make it, please let me know your thoughts and tag me on my Fb page Pasta Journey or my Instagram _pastajourney_ . I would love to hear from you!