Home Made Cheese Filled Tortellini Tortelli di Erbette

So many pictures and so little time...lost between the dance recital and the bridge construction I finally unearthed these tortellini's.  My youngest helped out and became a pasta master and eater.

 step one: make the pasta dough - best way in your food processor

 step two: divide the dough into four equal parts

 step three: flatten dough and roll on #1 in pasta maker

 step four: fold rolled dough and repeat steps three and four about four times

step five: roll dough on numbers 2 through 5 one time each 

cover dough with damp dish towel until ready to cut

 step six: sprinkle dough with flour

 step seven: dip cutter into flour and cut

 step eight: make filling

 step nine: plop in filling (I always tend to over fill)

 step ten: fold over and press to seal

 step eleven: fold around finger and pull down top like a cape

 

Tortelli di Erbette

Pasta Filled with Ricotta and Swiss Chard

from Carol Field

Celebrating Italy

Pasta

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) unbleached all purpose flour

pinch of salt

4 large eggs

a little cold water

~ set the four and salt in the bowl with the steel blade and pulse several times

~ with the motor running pour the eggs down the feed tube

~ mix only until the dough has come together loosely around the blade

~ if the dough is too stiff, add a little cold water

~ remove and kneed on a lightly floured surface

~ gather dough in a ball and cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15-30 minutes

Filling

2 bunches of swiss chard

3/4 pound fresh whole milk ricotta (whirled in a food processor)

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 egg

large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

~ trim chard removing thick stems and wash leaves very well

~ put the chard leaves in pot using only the water that remains on the leaves

~ cook until tender 5-9 minutes

~ drain and squeeze out

~ chop fine

~ mix the chard, ricotta, parmesan, butter, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper

~ cool before use

~ can be refrigerated 4 to 8 hours

Making the tortellini

~ roll out the pasta

~ using a pasta machine

~ take a piece of dough about the size of an egg and roll up through the first setting

~ follow directions above in pictures

~ cook tortellini in a large pot of boiling water add 1T salt to water

~ cook 3-5 minutes

from our garden -  Swiss Chard