Tortellini

Apologies for the huge gap between recent blogs, this is due to lots of secretive birthday cake making for my daughter's eighteenth!

I haven't made fresh pasta for ages and thought it was about time I got my faithful pasta machine out and knocked up some tortellini. There are so many pasta dough recipes, some seem to have dozens of eggs, others have just egg yolks and others recommend only one or two per hundred grams of 00 Flour? It's very confusing. The methods vary too, but I used the processor method and started with 200 grams of 00Flour, one egg and one egg yolk. I blitzed this but it still felt a little dry, so I added one more yolk. The dough came together nicely, I wrapped it in cling and rested in it in the fridge for a hour.

Whilst the dough was resting I blitzed a small punnet of mushrooms, melted a little butter and olive oil and fried the mushrooms with a finely chopped garlic clove. Once this had cooked down I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of grated Parmesan, seasoned and left it to cool.

The best gadget I ever bought was my Kitchenaid Pasta Roller. I cut the dough in half, kept one piece covered while I flattend the other half and started to put it through the rollers, largest setting first. After rolling, folding and re-rolling through this setting I then started to pass it through the thinner settings until I was left with a long sheet of gossamer. Sprinkled semolina across the work surface and laid the sheet down

To Make Tortellini

Score squares (about 5cm) onto the dough as a guide and place a teaspoon of mushroom stuffing in the middle. Use a little water to dampen the edges, fold in half to make a triangle. As you press the sides together, gently massage from the stuffed centre to the edges to force any air out. With the longer edge of the triangle at the bottom, take the two 'arms' and pinch them together, you should have a little tortellino! Place on a tray, with a generous layer of semolina, to dry.

To Make Ravioli

Score a rectangle onto the pasta sheet, about 5cm by 10cm (this is just a guide, the finished Ravioli can be any size you like!) Place about a teaspoon of filling in the centre at one end for the rectangle, dampen the edges with water and fold over to make a square. Again, carefully press the edges together, easing out any air. Place on the 'semolina tray' to dry.

These can be kept in the fridge for three days or frozen for up to three months. To cook, drop into a pan of boiling salted water, turning down the heat so that the water is just simmering, you don't want to have to little parcels thrashing about in a maelstrom, they might burst open and all that fiddling about would have been in vain!

I melted butter, quickly fried some sage leaves, poured this over a dozen totellini and gave them to R as a treat for finishing her essay.