Tortelli della vigilia

1 meal

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 pounds Spinach, fresh
;salt, coarse-grained
15 ounces Ricotta
2 Eggs, extra large
2 Eggs, extra large; yolks only
4 Eggs, extra large
4 cups Flour, unbleached
6 ounces Butter, sweet; (1 1/2 stick)
1½ cup Parmigiano; freshly grated
1 cup Parmigiano; freshly grated
;salt
;pepper
Nutmeg, freshly grated; to taste
4 teaspoons Oil, olive; or vegetable
;salt, pinch of
;pepper, fresh ground
Nutmeg, freshly grated

Directions

FILLING

PASTA

SAUCE

Rinse the spinach very well and cut off the larger stems, then cook in a large quantity of boiling salted water for about 4 minutes.

Drain the spinach, cool it under cold running water, and squeeze dry.

Chop the spinach very fine, then place it in a bowl, along with ricotta, eggs, egg yolks, Parmigiano, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Blend with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thoroughly combined, then cover and let stand in the refrigerator until needed.

MAKING THE PASTA: Place the flour in a mound on a pasta board. Make a well in the center and put in the egg, olive oil, and salt. With a fork, first mix together the yolk, the white, oil and salt, then begin to incorporate the flour from the inner rim of the well, always incorporating fresh flour from the lower part, pushing it under the dough to keep the dough detached.

When almost half of the flour has been absorbed, start kneading, always using the palms of you hands in a folding motion, not the fingers. Continue absorbing the flour until almost all of it has been incorporated. The small fraction of flour that remains unabsorbed should be passed through a sifter to remove bits of dough and kept to coat dough during the succeeding steps. Now you are ready to use the pasta machine. HINT: divide the dough into as many pieces as the number of eggs you incorporated before rolling. Follow directions of your machine.

For directions on making Tortelline, see separate information recipe.

Begin preparing the sauce by melting 8 tablespoons (4 oz) of the butter in a saucepan; let stand, covered, until needed.

Bring a large quantity of cold water to a boil in a stockpot.

Meanwhile, prepare a serving dish by pouring in half the melted butter. When the water is boiling, add coarse salt to taste, then the tortelli quickly but gently, being careful not to break them. If the tortelli have been made as much as an hour or two before, they will cook and rise to surface of water in 1 minute. If they are already dried, cooking time will be longer (about 3 to 4 minutes).

Remove the tortelli with a strainer-skimmer and place them on the prepared serving dish.

Pour the rest of the melted butter over the tortelli, arrange the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, in pats on top then sprinkle the Parmigiano, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, and serve.

Source: "The Fine Art of Italian Cooking" by Giulian Bugialli Submitted By MARGARET YOUNG On 10-28-95

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