A TYPICAL RECIPE OF MY TOWN: TORTELLI BURRO E SALVIA

Today I want to share with you a great classic of my town, Piacenza: literaly, they are tortelli stuffed with ricotta and spinach, flavoured with butter and sage, but we call them “tortelli con la coda”, for their particular shape. (they seems to have the tail, infact) They’re served simply with hot butter and sage leaves, they’re just perfect!Sometimes in winter we flavor them with a tomato&mushrooms sauce. In many regions of Italy you can find ravioli, tortelli, cappelletti filled with ricotta and spinaci, mixed with other ingredients. Afterall, these are all ingredients of the rural cooking, widespread all over our Country. Anyway, this recipe remains one of the most typical you’ll eat in the surroundings of Piacenza.

Here te recipe for 4 portions:

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE PASTA:

– 400 gr wheat flour
– 2 eggs
– water just enough
– salt just enough

FOR THE FILLING:
– 300 gr spinach
– 200 gr ricotta
– 100 gr parmigiano reggiano
– 1 egg
– salt just enough
– nutmeg just enough
– garlic (optional, if you like it)

PREPARATION:

Make a well in the center of the flour: use quite all the quantity of flour, preserving just a little bit. Add in the center the eggs, the salt, a little bit of water, and start to knead, till the mixture is ready (when the mix is ready, it’ll come off from your hands). Sprinkle the remaining flour on the working top and roll out the dough with the rolling pin, till you will obtain some thin fillo dough. Let the pasta rest for a bit. In the meanwhile, you’ll start preparing the filling for the tortelli, boiling the spinach in hot water. When they are ready, drain them carefully to let out all the water; chop them, put them in a casserole, and finally add the ricotta, the parmigiano cheese, a little bit of nutmeg, the egg, salt and pepper. Whip all the ingredients in a blender till you’ll obtain a rich spinach cream: the filling for the tortelli is done.

Now that the pasta has rested for a while, slice it making many squares of 7×7 cm. In the middle of each square, put a teaspoon of stuffing. Put each pasta square on the palm of your hand, and fold towards the center the angles, one after the other. While you fold up the corners, pinch lightly the pasta to shape a sort of twist. Remember to “weld” the pasta and “close” the tortello in correspondence to the “tail”, just pressing it. Put in order the tortelli once they’re done, and place them on a floury tray, far-between each other.

Buon Appetito!

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