Life has become so busy and Hubby and I have got into a bit of a rut with our meals, so we decided to sit down and find some lovely new recipes, we both love to cook from scratch using gorgeous ingredients and bring these meals that have been made with love to our family table and where better to find these recipes than in my new cookery book ‘Cooking with Italian Grandmothers‘. Who knows better than how to feed their families well, than the fantastic Nonna’s of Italy.
This book is so lovely, not only is it filled with gorgeous regional recipes but each chapter tells a story about a very special Nonna. If you are a regular to my Blog you will know that Gelsomina’s Cucina is a tribute to a very special Nonna indeed.
I love cookery books that are not only full of inspiring recipes but books that you can also take up to bed with you and read at night with a nice cup of tea or a cheeky glass of wine before you fall a sleep, this book is just perfect for that.
This recipe was the first to catch my eye as it is similar to one of my favourite recipes from Carluccio’s, I have had it time and time again and it is the delicious sage butter that sells it to me every time. Unlike the Carluccio’s recipe which uses ricotta and spinach, this one uses butternut squash. The jury is still out for me on wether I truly like butternut squash, I am giving it a second go after dismissing it for years, normally where ever a recipe says to use butternut squash, I use sweet potato instead and I think this recipe would work just as well with sweet potatoes, so will maybe try that next time.
Making your own pasta is time consuming I know and why bother when you can buy fantastic dried and fresh at the supermarket, but when it comes to tortelloni or ravioli you really have to, not only is the taste amazing and so much better, but I have never found pre-filled tortelloni or ravioli that actually tastes good. We purposely chose to make ours at the weekend so that we knew that we would have plenty of time, especially to clean up the mess that my Husband creates in the kitchen whilst cooking ! Pasta making is a labour of love, the bomb that hits the kitchen when Hubby cooks is not !!!
Your time and effort is rewarded with a fresh and clean tasting dish, that even though has butter and cheese in it, actually feels like it is nurturing your body as you eat it, its light and filling all at the same time and the addition of the amaretti biscuits add a very delicious bittersweet twang to the dish. We were however very lucky to get any biscuits into the pasta, as amaretti’s are Luca and mine’s favourite and we are really enjoying the fact that this recipe only needed a few !
So all this week Hubby and I are cooking new Italian recipes, so if you don’t fancy giving pasta making a go, hopefully depending on how they turn out I will bring you a very simple gnocchi recipe that we are having with a Gorgonzola sauce or even one of the best pesto’s we have ever made, so watch out for these lovelies hopefully later in the week, but for now…
Buon appetito
For the pasta:
2 3/4 cups (350g) type 00 flour
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the filling:
2 medium butternut squash, dry roasted at 400F until soft
1/4 cup (25g) finely grated Parmesan
6 tablespoons ground amaretti biscuits, crushed
1 large egg, whisked with a fork
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
For the brown butter and sage:
1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter
6 to 8 sage leaves
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup (50g) finely grated Parmesan
Salt
Dust your work surface lightly with flour.
Measure the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre of it. Add the eggs and olive oil. Using a fork or your fingers, scramble the eggs together, slowly incorporating the flour until the dough has become a shaggy mass. If the dough isn’t coming together, just add a sprinkle of water. Turn the dough onto a clean board or work surface and knead it until it is smooth and pliant, this will take from 5 to 10 minutes. Hubby did this part and he said it was a great work out for the arms! The dough is ready when it rebounds to the press of your thumb. Cover with a clean cloth or wrap in cling film and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
While the pasta dough rests, prepare the filling. Scoop out 2 cups of the roasted squash into a bowl, puree the squash in a food processor for a smoother filling, or mash by hand. It looks a bit light baby food, but trust me, it tastes delicious. Add the remaining filling ingredients to the puree and stir to combine.
After the dough has rested for the 30 minutes, cut into eight equal pieces. Press down on each piece of dough to flatten it slightly, then roll it out on the widest setting of a pasta machine. Once you have passed a piece of dough through once, fold it into thirds and pass it through again. Do this a couple of times for each piece of dough, dusting slightly with flour before each pass through the rollers if the dough starts to get a bit sticky. Lay your rolled pasta on clean cloths or parchment paper dusted with flour, if you are taking a while at this stage, just cover the pasta sheets to prevent them from drying out.
After you have finished passing the first lot of dough through the pasta machine adjust the machine to the next smaller setting and pass each piece of dough through this setting. Continue this process, increasing the settings incrementally until you reach number 5. Our machine isn’t numbered, but this was the second to last setting on ours. When you get to number 5, pass each piece of dough though twice, resulting in 8 pasta sheets measuring roughly 16 by 4 inches each. We cut ours to form nice tidy sheets and made ours to fit our cutter, so just play around to suit your equipment.
On the lower half of the pasta sheet place 1 tablespoon of filling every 2 inches just above the centre of the sheet. Fold the top half of the sheet over the filled half. Press down around the edges of the filling to remove any air bubbles and seal the filling in. You can use a water mister if you have one to lightly spray the pasta before folding it over, we used a pastry brush, this will create a good seal, you do not want your filling leaking out during the cooking process after all your hard work !
Cut the pasta into individual tortelloni with a zigzag cutter or knife. Repeat the procedure until you run out of the pasta or filing. Place the tortelloni on a well-floured plate so that they are not touching each other. If you do not want to cook them straight away, cover them and just pop them in the fridge until needed.
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Meanwhile, in a saute pan, prepare the brown butter and sage sauce by melting the butter over a low heat until the foam subsides and it becomes golden brown colour, you do not want it burnt! Add the sage leaves, turning them every few seconds. When the butter turns tawny brown, remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice. The sage leaves should be nice and crispy. If they look like they are about to burn, remove them onto some kitchen towel and just add them back to the pasta at the end.
Boil the tortelloni for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how long you stored them before cooking. Drain the tortelloni, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and return the tortelloni to the pot. Pour over the brown butter and sage, moisten with the reserved pasta water if needed and serve immediately, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.
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