2014 is turning out to be the year of fresh pasta. Ever since I took the Pasta Workshop at The Chopping Block, I have been cranking out homemade pasta — literally — every few days. I have a habit of getting obsessed with a new skill or piece of equipment and when that happens my poor family ends up eating the same food for weeks. At least with fresh pasta, they don’t seem to mind.
Having gotten papardelle and fettucine under my belt, I wanted to try my hand at a filled pasta. I am having a small dinner party for my husband’s birthday this weekend, so I somewhat rashly decided to make tortellini in brodo for the first course as an excuse to make homemade tortellini.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the filled pasta, mostly tortellini and ravioli, available in refrigerated cases at the grocery store. One such brand of fresh pasta that I like is Giovanni Rana. Most of us top tortellini with some kind of sauce or use it in pasta salad. Delicious uses all. But in Italy, tortellini is only ever eaten in soup.
Tortellini in brodo means tortellini in broth and is the traditional way to eat these small pasta rings. It’s a popular dish in Northern Italy around the holidays and through the winter. It will be the perfect first course for my dinner party because the main course is going to be boeuf à la ficelle, which is an old French dish of beef tenderloin poached in a rich beef bouillon. The bouillon is then typically served as a first course. So, since I was making beef bouillon from scratch anyway for my boeuf à la ficelle, I might as well make some tortellini to serve in it, right?
I know that this must seem a like an insane amount of work, and I won’t lie to you: homemade tortellini is labor-intensive. But it does have some saving graces. One, you can divide the work into pieces and two, it can be done ahead of time. I made my pasta dough one day and refrigerated it. The next day, I made the filling, rolled out the pasta dough and made the tortellini. Now they are sitting in the refrigerator waiting until the dinner party to be cooked in boiling broth.
Homemade tortellini is also a fun project and one that you could do with friends or your kids. Invite your friends over for a tortellini-making party! With many hands, stuffing the pasta would go quickly and everyone could bring home tortellini for their freezer.
In other words, I’m not suggesting that you make homemade tortellini for Tuesday night dinner. But I am saying that it is a worthwhile and fun DIY kitchen project for when you have a few hours to devote to it. It is not hard, just time-consuming. And the results will not disappoint. The chewy bite of the homemade pasta dough and the ability to customize a filling to your taste and have it be truly fresh will leave you swooning. I loved how I could really taste the fresh herbs and creamy ricotta in these tortellini.
That being said, it is important to use the best possible ingredients for the tortellini. Seek out really fresh ricotta from your cheesemonger. (Or if you’re really nuts, make it yourself. Even I didn’t go that far, bu now I kind of wish I had.) You can use part-skim cheeses if you want to cut down on the fat and calories but the taste will not be as transcendent.
- For the pasta dough:
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup semolina flour*
- 2 eggs
- For the filling:
- 15 oz. fresh ricotta
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
- ½ cup grated mozzarella
- ¼ cup each chopped fresh basil and parsley
- Pinch nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to taste
- *If you don't have semolina flour, you can use all-purpose, but if you think you will be making fresh pasta regularly, buy a bag of semolina flour. It's not hard to find.
- To make the pasta dough, combine the flour, semolina flour and eggs in a food processor and pulse it for a few short bursts to combine ingredients.
- Then pulse for longer stretches until the dough begins to come together.
- Remove dough from the food processor and place on a well-floured board or a silicone nonstick rolling mat.
- Knead the dough for several minutes until smooth. Dough should be moist but not sticky.
- Wrap pasta dough well in plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least thirty minutes. If not using dough immediately, wrap well and store in refrigerator.
- Prepare filling by combining ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, herbs and nutmeg in a large bowl.
- Stir well to thoroughly combine ingredients and season well with salt and pepper.
- To fill tortellini, divide pasta dough in half, keeping unused half wrapped.
- Using a pasta machine or a pasta-rolling attachment for a standing mixer, roll out pasta into thin sheets. (My pasta roller starts at 0 and I roll out my dough out to 6.)
- Place sheets of dough on parchment paper or a nonstick rolling mat. Have the bowl of filling and a small dish of water handy.
- Line a tray with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats to hold filled tortellini.
- Using a pastry cutter approximately 2 inches in diameter, cut circles in the pasta dough. Remove dough scraps and wrap in plastic to be re-rolled.
- Using a small spoon -- I use a spoon for feeding a baby -- place a marble-sized amount of filling in the center of the circles. Do not overfill or the tortellini will not seal.
- Working with one tortellino at a time, dip your finger in the water and moisten the edge of the circle.
- Fold circle in half and pinch together well.
- Fold up the sealed edge like a cuff.
- Then place the flat end of the half-circle against your pinky and fold the corners around and pinch closed.
- Carefully remove the tortellino from your finger and place it on the prepared tray. Repeat until you filled all the circles.
- You can roll out the gathered scraps of pasta dough again and repeat the process.
- Repeat the entire process with the remaining half of the pasta dough.
- This recipe makes between 72 and 80 tortellini. You should still have filling leftover at the end.
- Cook the tortellini in boiling salted water or broth for two minutes and serve.
- Tortellini can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen.
Hi Emily, I found you through triberr and I think we have similar POVs because I am love to challenge myself in the kitchen. I’m also a huge advocate of fresh pasta and make it about once a month. I also have a ravioli press and one of my struggles when making them when I first started to was keeping the pasta from drying out. Tortellini has been on my radar for a while now but I was hesitant for the very same reason, so thank you for this tutorial.
Also, I’ve made ricotta from scratch in the past. It’s actually very easy. If you like, check it out here.
Thanks so much for your comment, DB. I have done homemade ricotta too using Jennie Perillo’s method – a fun project.
I really like your blog as well. Will you be attending any conferences this year?
Mrs. Stuntman and I are working our finances to make the Food & Wine Conference in Orlando this year. You?
Hoping to go to IFBC in Seattle this fall.
Yum! Maybe labor intensive, but I your tortellini were well worth it! I almost bought a bag of those Giovanni Rana tortellini last night. I’ve never had them, and pasta sounded so good at the time, especially when no prep work is involved. But I couldn’t pull the trigger. And because of your post, I’m glad that I didn’t!
I think the Giovanni Rana ones are pretty good for everyday. Homemade is definitely special occasion thing!