Tortellini – stuffed pasta similar to ravioli – are fun to make at home. These tortellini are filled with a delightful combination of cooked Swiss chard and fresh ricotta cheese.
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 2/3 cups flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 bunches Swiss chard
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Butter
Preparation:
- Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the well and whisk with a fork – once the eggs are whisked keep stirring, gradually working in the flour until it all becomes a solid mass. Use extra flour, if you need to, and knead the dough until it comes together. Cover the dough in plastic wrap, patting it into a disk as you do so. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.
- Remove the stems from the chard and reserve them for another use (I like to make a Swiss Chard Gratin.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt so it tastes salty. Add Swiss chard leaves and blanch them until they wilt, about 30 seconds. Lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon to tongs, put the leaves in a colander, and let drain and rinse with cool water until the leaves are cool enough to handle. (Leave the pot of water on the stove, with the heat off, to use later to cook the pasta.)
- Working with small handfuls at a time, squeeze as much water as possible out of the chard leaves. Chop the chard and put it in a medium bowl. Add ricotta and Parmesan, combine thoroughly, then add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Divide the pasta dough into 8 even pieces. On a well floured surface or with a pasta roller, working with one piece at a time, roll them out to similar-sized sheets. Cut a sheet into 2-inch squares. Put a dab of filling on each square of pasta. Fold each square corner-to-corner into a triangle, seal the edges, and the pinch the two corners that are farthest away from each other together. Set the tortellini on a lightly floured baking sheet or other clean surface. Repeat with remaining squares and remaining pasta.
- Bring water back to a boil, add pasta, and cook until hot all the way through and the pasta is tender to the bite, about 3 minutes. Drain, toss gently with butter, divide among 4 pasta bowls, and garnish with Parmesan cheese to taste.
