Since Ashleigh bought me a pasta machine in 3 years I have absolutely fallen in love with the process. Its simple and meditative and once you've tasted good fresh pasta it'll be almost impossible to go back to dried. Some may scoff at me saying it's simple but trust me, it may take 2 or 3 tries to get right but once you're used to the feel of a correct pasta dough you'll never struggle again.
Having said that, this specific Spinach Pasta Tortellini is not something to tackle your first time round. We decided to get creative on a weekend and experiment with a new fold and the amazing green colour. Making and filling the tortellini can be time consuming, we made 23 early in the afternoon before making the sauce and oil to finish the dish when we were ready for dinner, so you can always freeze some once you've made a batch and cook from frozen.
You can find a full video with the whole method on @ashleighfynn instagram page under highlights
Serves: 4
Time: 2 hours
Ingredients
Pasta
200g Baby Spinach
2 eggs
2 cups 00 Flour
1tsp salt
Filling
1 medium butternut
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli (deseeded)
4 sprigs rosemary (leaves removed from stalk)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
2 tbsp cream
1 tbsp salted butter
1 tsp sherry vinegar
Sauce
4 rashers of bacon
Half a white onion
1 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
t tbsp mixed herbs
t tsp red wine vinegar
1 tin chopped and peeled tomato
Parmesan Rind (optional)
Herb Oil
50g Basil
1/3 cup olive oil
1 small garlic clove
salt
1/2 tsp mustard
1 tsp lemon juice
Method
Filling
Preheat the oven to 200 C
Peel and deseed your butternut and chop into 2 cm cubes
In a small bowl mix together the garlic, chilli, rosemary and olive oil before pouring over your chopped butternut and tossing to coat evenly
Spread out evenly on a baking try, season liberally with salt and pepper
Pop into the oven for ±30 minutes or until tender
Once ready add to the clean blender and mix until smooth with the cream, butter and sherry vinegar
Season to perfection
Pasta
Start by boiling 200g of spinach in a pot of water (which should just cover the spinach) for 5 minutes
Once boiled allow to cool completely before squeeing out all the moisture with your hands
Add the eggs and the spinach to a blender and mix
Pour the mixture into a food processor with the 00 flour, salt and pulse till it comes together and looks crumbly
Knead for 10 minutes until smooth
Wrap in cling film/damp towel and rest at room tempaerature for at least 30 minutes
Cut your dough ball into quarters and work with one quarter at time
Smoosh each quarter onto a well floured surface and roll out with a floured rolling pin into a rectangular shape
Laminate your dough: Fold the shorter ends toward the middle before flipping over and rolling into a rectangle again but but in the opposite orientation to before
Set your pasta machine to its thickest setting and pass the sheet through twice before lowering the thickness, we usually stop at the last/second last setting for ravioli
Cut rings about 10cm in diameter and set aside lightly floured covered with a damp cloth
Place a tsp of the filling into the centre of the dough
Wet the outer edge of the dough with water and fold in half making sure to squeeze the edge so that its as thin as a single layer of the pasta you should have a half moon
Wet the corners of the half moon and brinh them together towards the flat edge of the pasta to form a little belly button (a tortellini)
Repeat until all the dough is finished
Add to a pot with boiling salted water for 5 minutes
Sauce
Cut bacon into strips and add to a cold pan on medium heat to render the fat fully before removing from the pan
Sweat the onion in the bacon fat and butter because you deserve it
Add crushed garlic and herbs and allow to cook on medium low for about 5 minutes before deglazing the pan with red wine vinegar
Add the tin of tomato and stir together
Put the bacon, parmesan rind and and some water into the pan and let it simmer to thicken up
Herb Oil
Add all elements to a blender and blend till smooth
Serve by putting a ladle of sauce in the bottom of a bowl, arrnage 6 tortellini on top, drizzle over the herb oil and grate some fresh parmesan on top.
Happy Cooking!
