Black garlic and spinach tortelli

Serves 6-8 (MAKES APPROX. 76 TORTELLI) Starters and mains

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Method

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Wash the spinach and add to a pan without drying it. Add a pinch of salt and cover. On a medium heat, cook for around 3 minutes until wilted, then drain well. Squeeze every drop of moisture from the leaves, put on a board and chop very finely. Squash the garlic on a board with a heavy cook’s knife and mix evenly into the spinach.

Place half the spinach mixture in a processor with the flours, whole eggs and yolk (the white is for later). Process until the mixture comes together into a ball. Tip onto a work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Cut into 4 pieces, wrap each in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Put the rest of the spinach and garlic mixture in a bowl with the well-drained ricotta and cheese for the pasta filling, then set aside.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roughly shape into a flat rectangle the width of the rollers on a pasta machine (keeping the rest wrapped). Roll on the widest setting of a pasta roller, and roll again. Repeat this 4 times, each time reducing the setting. When the finest setting
is reached, cut the length in half and roll each of the 2 pieces once more. Make up one batch of tortelli before rolling out another quarter batch of pasta.

Dust a large tray with a little extra semolina flour. Place the 2 rolled-out pasta sheets on a worksurface and, using a crinkled pasta cutter or, for a plain edge, a knife, cut into 8cm squares. Put a slightly heaped tsp measure of filling onto each square. Using a finger, wipe a little egg white onto 2 of the edges. Fold from a corner into a triangle to encase the filling and press the edges together to prevent them bursting when cooking. As you make the tortelli, place on the floured tray.

If you wish, you can freeze them at this stage in a single layer, not touching each other. When frozen, pile them gently into a container (the ends splinter easily). Cook as below from frozen, giving them just a little longer.

Fill a large pan three-quarters full with boiling water from the kettle and bring back to a rolling boil. Salt the water and cook the tortelli for around 3 minutes. Check they are cooked to your liking. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, melt the clarified butter or ghee and fry the chopped black garlic until the pieces are separating, then add the sage leaves for a few seconds. Scoop them from the pan onto a plate using a slotted spoon. Remove the tortelli with a slotted spoon and add to the pan with a few tbsp of the cooking water and a little grated Italian hard cheese to give a creamy finish. Dot over the sage and garlic and serve with extra cheese shaved over the top and a dusting of freshly ground black pepper.

This recipe was taken from the April 2020 issue of Food and Travel.

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