Including: How to make fresh pasta for tortelloni and other stuffed pastas & ravioli

Most of us who are at least a little enamored with Italian food realize and recognize the vast and unending code for Italian pasta shapes. They range from fairly consistent (spaghetti is spaghetti just about anywhere you go) to the incredibly confusing (tortelloni can be either the little parmesean filled pastas we find dried in the grocery, more commonly known in the US as tortellini, or large, fresh pasta dumplings, or even a stuffed dumpling of any kind, as in a bit after the middle ages, when pasta was really making itself popular in Italy via Napoli’s maccheroni which we think of as being the elbow shape but in Italy can mean just about any unstuffed pasta shape, especially something similar to bucatini).

Anyway, it’s not consistent. But by tortelloni here, I mean a stuffed pasta in a particular shape, as, well, shown.

For the filling:
two medium golden beets, roasted with olive oil, salt, & pepper in foil for 1 1/2 hours or more, peeled & rough chopped
1/3 lb capricho di caba or other salty, moist fresh goat cheese/chevre
salt & pepper
olive oil

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add olive oil as needed to make a ricotta consistency.

For the pasta:
Measurements are approximate
1/2 C (or 50g) semolina 00 size flour
1/2 C (or 50g) 00 white wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Mix the flours, pour in a pile and create a well. Sprinkle with salt, add the egg to the center, and gently beat to incorporate flour. Once somewhat together, use hands to mix the rest of the flour in until it takes a comfortable amount and is no longer sticky when handling repetedly for several rounds of kneading. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and let set for at least 1 hour, up to 12. See this entry on making fresh pasta for more details on making the dough: How to Make Fresh Italian Egg Pasta.

Roll the dough out using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. I find it easier to work with half the dough at once, keeping the other half nicely covered with the plastic wrap. Roll out as thin as the dough will allow without tearing or becoming fragile. The longer you let it rest the easier it will be to accomplish this. Using the correct size flour (extra fine) will also aid in this.

Cut in equal squares. I eyeball it, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Add a small drop of filling to each square.

Fold into a triangle and seal with your fingertips by pinching, starting at the top of the triangle and working around the edges. Try not to include extra air near the filling, or they may have trouble staying closed once in the hot water.

Press the left and right sides of the triangle together to form a circle with a tail. Flip the pasta “inside out” to create an edge that will help trap sauce.

Cook in boiling hot water, salted (several T of sea or kosher salt).

Meanwhile, melt 2-3 T of butter, adding salt & pepper. Let it brown, and add pasta as it’s finished cooking. Toss. Serve.

This one is Stephanie Approved Y’all!

1 butternut squash
6 spears asparagus (large)
1/4 vidalia or other sweet onion
1 large eggplant
1 C quinoa
2 C water
1 slice 1/4 inch thick pancetta, cubed
olive oil
salt & pepper

Cube butternut squash, egglant. Dice onion. Section eggplant to 1/2 inch sections.

Wash quinoa and combine with water in saucepan. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat immediately to low. Set 15 min until water absorbed.

Fry pancetta in seperate pan, dry, adding to medium hot pan until crisp.

Heat olive oil and onion to medium high. Once onion shrunk but not translucent or colored yet, add butternut squash cubes (salt & pepper at every stage). Let soften. Turn heat up, add eggplant cubes. Allow to color, continuing to toss occasionally.

Add asparagus last. Let get bright green, turn off heat. Combine cooked quinoa with mixture, top with fried pancetta and serve.

One bunch swiss chard
1 zucchini
1 carrot
1 cucumber
2 green onion
1 red beet
2 limes
good olive oil
sesame seeds
cayenne
salt & pepper

Wash all vegetables. Toast the sesame seeds and place in grinder. Alternatively, run roughly through mortar & pestal. Reserve.

Julienne zucchini, carrot, cucumber, red beet. Slice thinly the green onion. Whisk juice of two limes with several T olive oil (1/2 or less amount of lime juice). Whisk in salt & pepper, ground sesames, 1/2 tsp to 1 T cayenne depending on desire for spiciness.

Marinate for 30 min-3 hr the julienned vegetables in the lime juice mixture.

Once marinated, place even amounts of vegetables into chard leaves and roll into “spring rolls”. Alternatively julienne chard (you can sub kale if you want) and wrap all into rice paper wrappers like Thai/Vietnamese spring rolls.

Make dipping sauce:
1 cup cashews
1/4 C almond milk (or water)
2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in food processor until smooth. Serve with veggie rolls.

Served on Cauliflower Gazpacho.

2 boneless halibut filets
1/2 one ripe mango, cubed
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 ripe avocado, cubed
4 large garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
good olive oil
salt & pepper

Mix the salsa ingredients together, adding avocado last, and giving one final turn over gently to coat in lime juice and prevent browning. Salsa can be made up to one day in advance but I ate it immediately after making and it was great too.

Dress halibut in cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Grill on medium high heat, skin down. Do not flip over. Keep lid on while grilling. When steaks seem firmed up and seemingly flakey along the thinner parts and up to but not yet into the thickest part, it is finished. Remove from skin in one movement and serve atop cauliflower gazpacho, polenta, quinoa, or other grain, and top with the mango garlic salsa fresca.

Fresh green beans or blue lake green beans (haricot-vert)
Lots of fresh, firm garlic, peeled & minced
Great olive oil
1-2 T butter
salt & pepper

Wash & trim the green beans. Cut into smaller, uniform pieces.

Bring a skillet to medium high heat. Add butter. Once melted and water cooks out, but before browning, add minced garlic. Reduce heat to medium low.

Once garlic is softened but not dark, turn heat back to medium or medium high, add green beans and a touch of olive oil to wet the pan enough. Add salt & pepper. Cook at this heat until bright green, then reduce heat to medium low until beans are softer but still crisp. Turn heat off, top with more excellent, fruity/light olive oil, and serve.

Salt & pepper good quality grassfed steaks of your choice, and toss them on a hot grill. Grill until medium rare.

Meanwhile, slice 3 large white mushrooms or other hearty variety, and sautee in butter until shrunk. Add salt & pepper during this process. Raise heat to high, and add 1/2 C rioja or other dry red wine. Reduce by 1/2, add fresh marjoram. Turn heat off once further reduced (to 1/4 original liquid, enough to fill a bit around the mushrooms and the mushrooms have plumped again). Let sit a few minutes, then add 2 T very cold butter, flipping or lightly stirring to mix in and thicken the sauce. Serve on top of the steaks.

DRY:
1 2/3 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1.5 C walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1 C sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

WET:
2 eggs
4 overripe bananas
1/2 C melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a large souffle container (2 qt) or two 8×3 inch loaf pans.

Chop walnuts in food processor until they become like flour/meal. If you do not wish to include walnuts, add 1/3 C flour. Whisk the dry ingredients together so that there are no lumps, or sift. Reserve.

Roughly cut bananas and then mush with fork or whisk into a pulp. Add eggs, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves. Mix until combined. Stir in melted butter and vanilla, then fold flour mixture until combined into batter. Pour into the cooking pan of your choice.

It’s done when a toothpick/skewer is inserted to the middle and comes out relatively clean (read: almost completely clean). Let it cool 10 minutes or so before you remove it from the pan. Should come out easily. Stays for about a week at room temperature.

Would be tasty served warm with Calvados and sour cream.

1 head cauliflower, cleaned and coursely chopped
1 carrot, clean and chopped
1 bosc pear
1 ripe yellow peach
1.5 C water/vegetable stock
1 small heirloom tomato
1/4 C olive oil
salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor–it’s best to add a bit at a time in proportion to the liquids for the smoothest consistency. At the end you should have a thick sauce like consistency. If not, add water or more ingredients. Everything is raw.

Transfer to a saucepan and cook on medium low for 30 minutes. Alternatively, blanch the cauliflower and carrot before chopping or pureeing. It will be a smoother consistency this way, but I enjoy the texture of not cooking it first.

Be sure not to over salt, or it will taste strange with the fruit’s sweetness.

Serve warm with olive oil and slices of heirloom tomato, or cold with tropical fruit or tomato.

This can also be used in place of polenta or mashed potatoes, and I intend to use it with grilled halibut and mango or papaya & avocado salsa tomorrow evening.

1 large block Maguro sashimi grade tuna, sliced in 2/3 and 1/3 blocks
1/4 English cucumber, trimmed and sliced thinly
Several heirloom tomatoes of varying color, ripe
Mixed greens
Live sprouted beans
Sesame seeds (regular toasted and black)
Lemon
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pan to medium high heat (just before the smoking point). Roll the smaller peice of tuna in black sesame seeds, the larger one in tan. Pan sear the fish in the oil, using your hands to hold the fish side by side in the oil and cook evenly on all sides. Make sure your hands are dry so the sesame seeds do not fall off.

Whisk juice of 1/2 lemon a

nd 1/3 as much olive oil as lemon juice together with salt & pepper. Dress your mixed greens, live beans, and anything else you’d like in the salad.

Slice the heirloom tomatoes evenly and assemble in short stacks with the cucumber slices (I did not do this but am determined it is a preferable presentation).

Assemble on a platter and let everyone tear in.

A great way to end a meal or delay the need for one, a cheese course is one of my favorite courses and also a quite versitile one. Manchego (a somewhat dry, usually aged at least 4 months but often for a year or more, sheepsmilk cheese from Spain with some air bubbles) with membrillo paste (smooth quince jam without too much sugar) is a traditional Spanish tapas pairing for dessert or for appetizer, though personally I discourage utilizing much cheese as an appetizer at least when you plan on serving a meal–it’s too filling, and too strong in flavor (if you’re doing it right).

So two cheeses I often keep in my fridge are some kind of brie or camembert (delices de bougogne and le chatelain are my top picks), and some pecorino (sheepsmilk cheese without air bubbles from Italy, semi-firm, sometimes with a slightly sweet flavor but also available as hard and dry as asiago–I prefer the younger versions).

With these two and other things sitting around you can present some interesting combinations.

Camembert with pear or apple is a classic pairing, it is also good with spicy orange marmelade. Actually, most things you can pair with camembert go equally well with an aged English cheddar (less creamy than the common Canadian counter part, Wednesleydale or another bandaged English cheddar are good ones to try).

For the pecorino, my favorite pairing is that of honey. Drizzled on top, or in a chunk including some honeycomb it compliments the pecorino well and brings out the ‘tang. Chestnut honey–which, unlike the trend of specialty honeys, does actually taste different from others, is a common Italian pairing usually served in small quantities in the afternoon with a glass of Vermintino or Vernaccia white wine. You can also serve the cheese with preserved or fresh roasted and skin removed pepperoncinos.