Homemade Tortellini
November 6, 2007 by glutenfreesoxfan
uncooked cheese tortellini
Here it is! The long-awaited tortellini! It was fun, it was tasty, and I’m never doing it again! Well, I should never say never. But I will say that ravioli were much easier, and much more likely to see a repeat performance.
I used Bette Hagman’s four-flour bean mix recipe which consists of garfava flour, tapioca flour, cornstarch, xanthan gum, salt, egg, and a little olive oil. I rolled out the sheets of pasta using my nifty new pasta-maker (which I love!). You can read all about my pasta-maker here. The filling was simply ricotta and Parmesan cheese with a little freshly ground pepper.
The best order for all of this is: 1) make filling and refrigerate; 2) make dough, keeping extra dough moist under damp towel while working; 3) make tortellini; 4) make sauce; 5) cook tortellini when sauce is almost done (takes about 5 minutes at most to cook).
How To Make Tortellini
(an exercise in futility)
1. Roll pasta out fairly thin, but not so thin that it’s in danger of tearing. It does have to hold the filling, after all.
2. Cut out rounds using a cooking or biscuit cutter, approximately 2 inches in diameter.
3. Place 1/4 teaspoon (yes, only that much) in center of circle.
4. Brush edge of half the circle with an egg wash (egg and water).
5. Fold circle in half, pressing down to seal edges. Try not to leave any air in the middle. You also need a fairly sizable edge, like the picture, in order to make the right shape later.
6. Pick up the semi-circle between thumb and index finger, with curved part facing up. (see photo)
7. Wrap around your finger, pressing ends together to seal.
8. Fold the top of the semi-circle down, away from the ends that you have just sealed together. Viola! You have a tortellini!
9. Repeat endlessly, until you are ready to throw the whole mess across the kitchen.
10. Cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes. (This will depend a bit on how thick your pasta was.)
Helpful hints:
It is very important when rolling out pasta to use a lot of corn starch to keep it from sticking. If you are using a pasta-maker, dust a little corn starch on both sides of the pasta before each pass through the machine.
When making the tortellini, keep the extra sheets of pasta (or extra rounds) under a damp towel to keep the dough from drying out too much. If it does dry out, you won’t be able to fold them up without tearing them.
I had less luck with my sauce, which was supposed to be an alfredo sauce with ham and peas. It tasted very good, but I accidentally let it boil, and boiling cream and butter does not produce a pretty result. Basically, it frothed the butter into a nice little foam, which separated from the cream. Oops!
the end result
That looks totally good! I’ll bet it was a lot of work. It sure makes me hungry looking at it!
you crack me up Karen!!! That looks awesome though! You’re going to have to come up here and teach me how to make pasta!! I’m still too scared to try it!! Well, that, and I’m too broke (or cheap) to buy a pasta maker! LOL
Oh my gosh! You are my HERO! Amazing! It looks like SO MUCH WORK but totally delicious.
-Sea
Thanks everyone! I wouldn’t call it being a hero - just really stubborn! lol! I like to take on challenges - I never like to be told something can’t be done or is too hard.
It was a ton of work getting them into the little tortellini shapes. If I had just stopped when they were half-moons, it would have been much quicker! (but less cute)
Carrie - you really don’t need a pasta maker to try something like ravioli. It makes cutting things like linguine easier, but when I first did my ravioli, I rolled it by hand. It does give you a bit of a work-out though. So you really need to want that ravioli (and have plenty of time to kill).
Karen,
Those look so good! And you did a great write-up. I see now where I was going wrong. With a larger biscuit cutter and the egg wash we may have success next time =)
And I put a pasta maker on my Christmas list, and am really hoping that I’ll get it =)
Great job Karen! I don’t have a pasta maker either. I think I need to get a bread machine first (or dough hook). Anyway, this is a great post. I am bookmarking it for when that pasta maker makes it way into my kitchen.