Friday, April 30, 2010

Pansotti with walnut sauce

Mixing the filling
Dough ready to be filled
Placing the filling
Folding the Pansotti
Cutting the Pansotti
Sealing it with the fork
Ready to eat.....Enjoy!!

Pansotti is stuffed pasta from the Liguria region. It is bigger than ravioli, and since it has no meat, it was a Good Friday typical lunch meal in my home.
The dough is the same that I use for fettuccine, but I used thickness #5.
Filling:
300 gms of spinach, swiss chard or mixed greens. They have to be cooked (just tender).
1 cup of ricotta
¼ cup of grated Parmiggiano cheese
1 teaspoon of fresh herbs (I use a mix of marjoram and oregano)
1 egg
Nutmeg and pepper
Prepare dough as described in a previous posting. For this pansotti, I made spinach dough. I blended eggs with cooked spinach (1/4 cup of cool spinach), and mix it with the flour. 
For the filling, drain the greens and cool them (they have to be absolutely dry). Mince them finely, and place it in a bowl. Add egg, ricotta, parmiggiano, herbs, nutmeg and pepper. Since parmiggiano cheese is salty, I do not add salt (you can add to your taste). Mix everything until is smooth. If the mix turns out to be “watery”, then you can either add breadcrumbs or more parmiggiano cheese.
Roll a piece of pasta, and make it of the width of the pasta maker. Put a generous spoonful of filling separated 1.5 cms each. Apply water in between the fillings, and fold it as shown in the picture. Press with your fingers/hand, cut them and seal them with a fork.
Cook in salted boiling water until al dente (about 5 minutes). Drain them and serve it with walnut sauce.
For the Walnut Sauce
I love walnut sauce. Here is the one I make:
1 cups of walnuts
2 medium clove garlic (minced)
A pinch of salt
Marjoram or oregano (or both)
Boiling water for soaking the nuts
½ cup grated Parmiggiano
Hot pasta water or warm milk to add to the sauce
Boil the walnuts with boiling water for three minutes. Drain them, and let it to cool for thirty minutes (this process will reduce the bitterness of walnuts). Put it in a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients except the parmiggiano. Make a smooth paste, and add the cheese. Add pasta water or warm milk to make the sauce. The sauce is neither thick nor watery. It needs to be creamy. Put it over the cooked pasta. Enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. Muy buena la receta voy a tratar de hacerlos.
    Besos

    ReplyDelete
  2. Annie...que bueno te gusto...Animate!, no es dificil...

    ReplyDelete