I personally love to cook with seasonal ingredients, because the colors and the flavors of the moment help me to harmonize my body with the rhythm of Nature and the changing seasons.
Autumn is, for me, a time of chestnuts, mushrooms, kaki, and pumpkin: sweet and intense flavors that gently prepare me for the arrival of the cold weather.
Tortelli di zucca (pumpkin) is an Italian cucina povera classic for this time of the year. Few ingredients for a result full of flavor, color, and sweetness.
Tortelli or Tortelloni (a bigger version of the most known Tortellini) is just one of many types of filled pasta you can find all over Italy. These delicious creations consisted of rolled-out layers of very thin dough cut into small shapes, and stuffed with a bit of ripieno (filling).
The recipe I propose is a free interpretation by Pastamadre, which aims to combine creatively the northern and southern Italy tradition with ingredients usually available in Berlin.
INGREDIENTS
for 2-3 servings N.B. N.B. Take our recipes as a suggestion and feel free to experiment and adjust ingredients and ratios to your taste! Filling:
300 gr of hokkaido or butternut pumpkin (baked for about 45 minutes at 150 degrees)
150 gr ground parmiggiano
4 or 5 smashed amaretti (typical Italian cookies made with bitter almonds)
2 spoons quince jam (you can replace with another jam)
a teaspoon of salt (according to taste)
a teaspoon of pepper (according to taste)
half teaspoon of ground muscat nut
a small piece of ground ginger
1 spoon soy sauce or vinegar balsamicEssig
Tortelli dough:
200 gr Durum wheat flour Semolina (Semola di grano duro)
100 gr water
Sauce:
100 gr butter
a few sage leaves
one tablespoon of pumpkin seeds
half teaspoon of cayenne pepper (according to taste)
DIRECTIONS
Filling: Wash, clean the pumpkin of seeds and cut it in big pieces. If you use hokkaido you can keep the peel. Bake the pumpkin for about 45 minutes in a 150-degree ventilated oven.
When it has cooled, mash it with a fork or potato masher and mix it with all the ingredients together until you get a smooth consistency.
N.B. Don't forget to taste and adjust the flavor to your taste.
Tortelli Dough:
Mix the semolina with the water and knead it until the dough is elastic and strong. Let it rest covered with a damp cloth for an hour or so.
Roll the dough out into a paper-thin sheets.
Cut the sheet of pasta into squares roughly 5cm by 5cm. Place 1 teaspoon of pumpkin filling in the middle of each square of pasta.
Dip your finger in water and run it along two edges of the square. Fold the square into a triangle, pressing the top together and then working your way along the sides.
Fold the pocket of filling upward toward the peak of the triangle. Set the pocket of filling against the nail of your index finger and wrap the two corners around your finger. Press tightly to seal!
Toss with flour, set aside on well-floured baking sheet or on a dry dishcloth.
COOKING
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a tablespoon or two of salt (the water must be almost as salty as sea water!).
Lower the tortelli into the water a few at a time. Stir the pot occasionally to prevent the tortelli from sticking to the pot or each other. Cook until all the tortelli have bobbed to the surface of the water, about 5 minutes. N.B. Don't forget to taste the edge of a tortello to see if it is cooked. Cooking time depends on how thin the dough is!
Meanwhile, melt some butter with the sage leaves and cayenne pepper. When the tortelli are ready, sautè them in the sauce adding little by little the pasta cooking water until you get a creamy consistency. N.B. Freshly made pasta absorbs a lot of water, keep adding it if you notice the sauce starts to dry out!
Serve and decorate with chopped pumpkin seeds and extra Parmesan cheese according to taste.
TIPS
There are a few general things to keep in mind when it comes to making tortelli, that it's worth remembering:
Keep the pasta dough cover. Pasta dries out surprisingly quickly if left uncovered, which makes it difficult to work with and prone to tearing. Keep both the remaining pieces of dough, the rolled out sheets of pasta, and the shaped tortelli covered with a piece of plastic wrap or a clean dish towel.
Don't over-stuff your pasta. More often than not, over-stuffing makes it tricky to seal the tortelli and leads to tortelli that burst in the cooking pot.
Use ample flour for dusting shaped tortelli. The shaped tortelli absorb rapidly the filling humidity, that makes them to stick to the tray and to each other. Be sure to keep both the tray and the tortelli dusted with a good amount of flour and don't let them touch once you've shaped them. Set them aside on well-floured baking sheet or on a dry dishcloth.
Freezing the tortelli. If not cooking the tortelli immediately, you can also freeze them. First cook them in boiling water, 3 or 4 tortelli at a time, for about 10 seconds (take them out of the water as soon as they come to the surface). You can place them on a wooden surface or a cloth. Once they are dry freeze them on a sheet pan and transfer to a freezer-safe container once solid. Tortelli will keep for about 3 months. Cook directly from the freezer, don't thaw them or they will stick.
Try it out, be creative and enjoy it.
With Love,
Maria-Lucrezia
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