our friend jack came to visit us, and so of course our way of entertaining him was to hang out in the kitchen, have cocktails, and cook a good meal! fresh pasta tortellini is a really fun meal to make with a bunch of people, as i proved true at my friend bex’ place in florida, where we had 5 or 6 people who all wanted to help. i wish i had remembered to photograph the meal, because jacob’s puttanesca sauce was killer, and we had a great salad from greens he grew in his garden. actually, i got one shot of evan and josh rolling and cutting out the massive amount of dough we made that night.
This is actually a perfect example of both how you want your cut dough to look before you assemble your torte’s, and how, with a rolling pin and the can your tomatoes came in, you can make just as good pasta as with a mechanical roller and a cookie cutter.
so you start with your rolled out fresh pasta dough. using a standard, round, 3.5″ cookie cutter, make as many circles as you can get out of your dough. you can roll the scraps back out once or twice, but expect to throw a little away.
hopefully you’ve already prepared your filling. for this dinner we were making with jack, we used eggplant from our farmers’ market, and ricotta cheese. we sliced and salted the eggplant and let it drain for a couple hours. then we dried them, tossed them in olive oil and some salt and pepper and oregano, and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or so. after they had cooked, we diced them, then mixed them with the cheese.
arrange a little work station with a bowl of your filling, a bowl of beaten egg, and your pasta disks. this is the part you can get all your friends to come help with. to assemble the torte’s, hold a disk in the palm of your hand. spoon a SMALL amount of filling into the center (a quarter-teaspoon, seriously). on half of the circle, brush a strip along the edge with egg. now fold the disk in half, the egg is your glue. use your thumb and forefinger to nip out any air around the filling, and along the edges to seal your pasta. now fold the edge back around the stuffed part like a collar, brush a bit of egg on one corner, wrap around your pinky (collar out), and press the corners together to finish. voila, the cutest tortellini ever! repeat with the rest of your dough.
that’s probably a bit confusing, so here’s a video of gordon ramsay doing it. jump to the 3:25 mark to watch him teach mrs. corbett how to assemble tortellini.
these still cook fast, but they take longer than linguini. boil in salted water for 8-15 minutes. they’ll be ready when the pasta is no longer stiff at the joining point. try it to make sure, cause it’s a bummer when they’re under or overcooked.
we dressed our torte’s with jill’s tomato sauce. it’s very simple and very delicious. roma tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, and spices. i always splurge on imported italian roma tomatoes, whole and peeled, in tomato puree. i mean, it’s 96% of the sauce, so spend the extra buck and skip the generic brand.
