Why this dish?
Serves 4-6
Cook Time
~8-10 minutes
Prep Time
~ 1 hour
Ingredients
Dough
- 00 Flour (2-3 cups)
- Eggs (2 whole, 8 yolks)
Filling
- Ricotta
- Chives (1 bunch finely chopped)
- lemon (~1 half, juiced)
- Olive Oil (1-2 tbsp)
- Salt + Pepper
Sauce
- Butter (1/3 stick)
- Garlic (~3 cloves, minced)
- Sage leaves (1-2 bunches)
Directions
Make the dough
In your flour, make a crater deep enough to comfortably cradle your eggs. Add the 2 whole eggs and 8 yolks to the crater and mix with a fork, incorporating the flour into the eggs mixture gently. When the fork stops being effective (the dough begins to form and will cling to your fork) pull the fork out and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together. If you used a bowl for the previous part, now is the time to move to a floured work surface. Continue kneading the dough, adding more 00 flour if necessary, until a smooth and supple – not sticky or dry – dough has formed. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Make the filling
In a mixing bowl, add the ricotta, chives, lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil, as well as salt and pepper to taste. You want the mixture to be tasty on its own so don't skimp on the salt and pep.
Expert move: make some extra filling, it goes VERY well on a cracker or on toast.
Wrap the torts
Roll your dough into sheets the same thickness as you would for ravioli, it should just barely start to be translucent (on my mercanto sheet roller, it's the #5 thickness). Let your sheets rest for a few minutes (5?) before trimming and wrapping. I find letting them dry out for a bit after being rolled allows them to be handled more easily while wrapping. Once they've rested, trim the edges so that the edges are clean. Cut the sheet into squares 1.5in x 1.5in and place a dollop of filling into the squares. You'll know if it's too much if you can't wrap them.
To wrap the squares with filling into tortellini shapes, start by orienting the square so it's a diamond. Bring the bottom vertex (bottom corner) to the opposite vertex (top corner). Seal the top two edges so that the filling will not escape by pressing firmly with the length of your index fingers. You should have a triangular ravioli now. If all is going well, take the bottom left and bottom right vertices and pull them together around your index finger, and seal them with your index finger and thumb. Voila!
Now do this until you're out of filling or pasta😅
Cook
Like the sea, salt your water and bring it to a boil. In a pan, over medium heat – either stainless steel or non-stick – brown your butter. Once browned, add garlic and sage, and also toss your tortellini into your boiling water. They cook in about 2 minutes since the pasta is fresh; you'll know they're done when they start to float up from the bottom. With a slotted spoon, add your cooked pasta to your pan with the butter, sage, and garlic. Add about a half to a whole cup of pasta water to your pan so that a nice sauce forms. Add a quarter cup at a time so that it doesn't get too watery. Once your sauce is nice and creamy looking, it's ready to eat!
Plating
Plate it however you want, it'll taste phenomenal and your guests will swoon. Just top it with some flaky salt and pepper (Maldon makes a great smoked flakey salt that goes very well with this dish). If you wanna go above and beyond, top it with a couple chive tops or some colourful edible flowers.
