Stuffed Pasta: Agnolotti, Ravioli, Cappelletti, Tortellini

This entry is dedicated to the art of stuffed pasta. Few things make me as excited as a big plate of agnolotti or ravioli. I know that these long Italian names can be intimidating, so let me break down the different shapes for you.



Agnolotti - "Priests' Cap." Crescent shape stuffed pasta



Ravioli - Little square or round pillows



Cappelletti - "Little hats." Hat-shaped stuffed pasta



Tortellini - "Little twists." Small and stuffed pasta.
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Now, in our last entry, we made pasta dough.

This recipe picks up with a room temperature ball of dough. Let's do this thing:

Place your dough ball onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Take 1 piece (covering the remainder with the damp towel) & flatten it with your hand until it’s flat enough to run through your pasta machine. If you don’t have a machine you can roll your dough out with a rolling pin. Continue to run it through the machine until you have achieved a very thin strip. Repeat this with the other 3 pieces of dough until all are uniform.

At this point put on a large pot of water of boil. Season it liberally with salt, and a few drops of olive oil.

At this point, you will pipe (or spoon) your filling onto the dough. We will talk about fillings after we finish the method.

Onto TWO dough strips, pipe (or spoon) about a tablespoon of filling at equal intervals along the strips.



Place the strips without filling on top of the ones with filling, and press down well around the filling. Using a pastry wheel cut your pasta into equal sized squares. Cover your completed filled pasta with a kitchen towel while you are preparing the sauce & waiting on the water to boil. If you leave it out in the open, the pasta will dry out, possibly crack, and nobody wants exploding stuffed pasta.

When the water comes to boil, add your filled pasta (cook a few at a time, if you crowd the pan, there's more of a chance they will stick together, or cook unevenly.) Once the filled pasta rise to the top, they are done. They will cook very quickly. Remove with a slotted spoon & set onto a plate.

Toss the cooked filled pasta into the sauce pan, and you've got a gourmet pasta dish fresh from Italy.

Now, what do I fill it with? What kind of sauce?

Here are some of my favorite fillings:

Ricotta & Asparagus Agnolotti

Asparagus - 7 pencil thin spears
Ricotta - 1 cup, fresh (drained)
Salt - 2 teaspoon
Pepper - ½ teaspoon
Parmigiano-Reggiano - 1 cup (shredded)

Method: Cook asparagus in boiling salted water until they are tender (about 2 minutes depending on thickness) - remove and shock in ice water. Cut asparagus thinly, on a bias - Mix ricotta, asparagus, salt & pepper, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Pumpkin & Sage Ravioli

Pumpkin Puree - 1 (small) can
Sage (fresh) - 1 tablespoon
Walnuts - ½ cup (finely chopped)
Butter - 2 tablespoon
Salt - 1 teaspoon
White Pepper - ½ teaspoon

Method: In a small sauté pan, add pumpkin puree and cook until heated through. Stir in sage, walnuts & butter. Add salt & white pepper - remove from heat and let cool.

Mozzarella & Spinach Tortellini

Buffalo mozzarella - 1 cup (shredded)
Asiago cheese - ½ cup (shredded)
Ricotta cheese - ½ cup
Milk - ¼ cup
Parsley - ½ teaspoon
Nutmeg (ground) - ¼ teaspoon
White pepper - ¼ teaspoon
Spinach (frozen) - 1 (10 oz.) package (thawed, drained, chopped)

Method: Blend together in food processor.

Italian Meat Cappelletti

Ground beef - ½ lb
Italian sausage - ¼ lb
Egg - 1, slightly beaten
Breadcrumbs - ¼ cup
Parmigiano-Reggiano (grated) - 2 tablespoons
Parsley (fresh) - 1 tablespoon (minced)
Onion (grated) - 1 tablespoon
Salt - ½ teaspoon
Basil (dried) - ½ teaspoon
Lemon zest - 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice - ½ teaspoon
Black pepper - ¼ teaspoon

Method: Brown ground beef and sausage in skillet (drain fat after cooking). Allow to cool. After cooled, add other ingredients and mix well.

As far as sauces go, your classic tomato, or alfredo sauce would work well on all of these, aside from the pumpkin/sage ravioli. For that, I use a sage-brown butter sauce. Here's the recipe.

Sage-Brown Butter Sauce

Unsalted butter - 6 tablespoons
Sage (fresh) - 15 leaves)
Chicken broth - ¼ cup

Method: Melt butter in a frying pan until the solids have brown. Add sage and chicken broth and simmer until the sauce has reduced and slightly thickened. Season with salt and black pepper.

I hope this has peaked your interest in fresh pasta. It can be a fun, family event or it can be a labor of love that one person makes for that special person, or people in his/her life.

Copyright 2010, Brian Griess, All rights reserved