The
Corvallis Carrot Organic Meal Prep
KALE TORTELLINI
INGREDIENTS:
4 oz kale
8 oz ricotta
4 oz parmesean or asiago cheese
1 egg
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t salt
for pasta
2 1/2 c AP flour
5 eggs
for sauce
1 shallot
1 T oil
1 c cream
2 oz parmesean or asiago cheese
yield: 6-8 servings
Sorry about this picture, it really doesn't do this dish justice. After the sun goes down my pictures suffer because of poor lighting. Oh well. The taste of these tortellini make up for it. This is a rich dish, you can cut the fat by just grating some cheese on top instead of making the cheese sauce. Tortellini is also great in soups, I normally freeze whatever tortellini I don't use and use them later in soups or as a quick meal.
Mix ingredients for pasta dough together and let it rest for 45 minutes, then gather together your other ingredients.
Put all of the ingredients for the filling in a food processor.
Pulse until mixture starts to come together, scrape down the sides to full incorporate all of the ingredients.
As the kale juice comes out of the leaves the mixture will become brighter green. You can refridgerate this mixture until it's ready to portion.
After your dough has rested you can roll it out. I like to do divde the dough in 3 parts.
Trim up sides to the pasta after you've rolled it out paper thin. Add the scraps to the 3rd piece of dough before rolling it out. You don't have to trim it up, but it will be easier to form if the pieces are square.
Fold the pasta in half, this will give you a guideline for cutting.
Cut the dough in half, following the line make by the fold. Then cut dough into squares.
Pipe, or spoon, filling onto squares. You want to make sure you have enough of a border so you can fold the dough over and seal it properly, without the filling coming out of the pasta.
Folding the tortellini.
Fold square in half diagonally so you have a triangle. Really press the dough together so you make a good seal.
Flip the tortellini over on top of itself, folding over the tip of the triangle.
Now you only have 30-60 more to do...(depending on how big you make them). I know this might seem like a long process, but tortellini is something that can be frozen and pulled out for a very quick meal. Making a big batch of tortellini could be a fun family project, and will cut down cooking times for future meals.
Fold square in half diagonally so you have a triangle. Really press the dough together so you make a good seal.
When you have all of your tortellini ready you can start on the sauce. You don't want to cook your pasta now, because it's fresh it only takes about 4 minutes to cook. Heat up oil and add shallots to pan.
Add 3 cubes of pesto, you can omit the pesto, the tortellini will taste great with just a cheese sauce.
Add cheese.
When the shallots start to take on a little color, add the cream.
Lower temperature to low-medium heat to melt the pesto cubes down.
Remove from heat and stir until cheese has melted.
Start cooking the tortellini. I like to do this in batches, so the pasta doesn't get overcrowded.
The pasta will start to float when it is cooked. I like to use a slotted spoon, to remove the pasta when it's done.
Put the pasta right into the sauce. If you use a regular spoon to remove the tortellini try not to add too much liquid to the sauce, a little is fine. You just don't want to add too much.
Cover with a lid and turn the heat on low. Continue cooking the rest of the pasta and add it to the sauce.
If the sauce looks a little dry you can add more pasta water, if it seems a little soupy you can cook out some of the liquid. Taste and add salt and pepper if it's needed.
Finish off with freshly grated cheese and parsley. Enjoy.
