Agnolotti

Be careful: this is a labour intensive recipe: it will take many hours (up to 8-10 of work if alone) and much practice to perfection. Don't set the bar too high and try to develop a feeling for doughs before attempting it!

Ingredients for 8 hungry people  

• 700g of flour
• 2 + 7 eggs (810g)
• 100+ 500g of one-day-old roastbeef, with its sauce
• 300 g of cabbage, spinach, or beet tops
• 100g rice flour
• 100g grated parmigiano reggiano
• 5g extra virgin olive oil
• 5g salt
• 10g kosher salt
• 0.5 m² of kitchen cloths
• pasta rolling machine or large rolling pin
• ravioli mold or ravioli cutting wheel
• blender
• some friends to help (optional)

Procedure

1. Mix the flour with 4 eggs and 3 yolks and add some water if necessary (see tip below);
2. Let the pasta dough rest for half an hour, in the meanwhile stir fry the vegetables for 5-10 min with the oil so that they dry up a bit;
3. Blend 500g of roast with the vegetables and salt, then add 2 eggs and the parmesan cheese;
4. With a rolling pin or the pasta machine make a sheet of pasta like the tagliatelle (see );
5. make tiny little mountains of filling in a grid approximately 2cm center from center (figure ) in the mold or on a board, then lay another sheet and carefully close and cut them.
6. Distribute evenly on the kitchen cloth and let them dry, then add the rice flour;
7. Blend the rest of the roast and make a gravy with the sauce;
8. Cook in salt water for 4-6 minutes then serve warm with gravy (and some parmesan) on top.

Be careful: the dough must be less than 1mm thick and homogeneous, a challenge with the rolling pin. If it gets too dry while rolling it spread some water on top with your fingers to ensure a proper closing.

Be careful: if the dough gets too dry when layering, and it becomes harder to make the two layers stick together, moisten the inner part (where you add the filling) right before the filling procedure, this will ensure a perfect hold.

Tip: different flours can be mixed, if you use only soft wheat the eggs should be enough, if you add durum wheat you'll need some water as well (up to 70g). Add it slowly while mixing, if it gets too wet you'll have to add more flour and get in a water-flour vicious cycle. With the pasta machine i suggest a 50-50 soft and durum wheat mix, with a rolling pin go for 100% soft wheat.

Tip: vary the filling, try with some pumpkin, different mixes of roasts, different cabbages, and so on... You can also change the colour of the dough if you make more than one type, to tell them apart: add 30g of finely minced spinach to make it green, 8g of cocoa for brown, 3g of tumeric powder to make it intense yellow, beets to make it red!

Tip: rice flour can be replaced with the normal one, but all the professionals use it because it leaves almost no taste while being a really powerful driying agent, as well as dissolving while cooking it.

Tip: the traditional sauce is this gravy, but also some melted butter (30g), even if frowned upon by the agnolotti enthusiasts is really good, especially when no roast sauce is available.

Figure: Layering (1, 2) and cutting (3) of Agnolotti. Lay a sheet of dough on a table covered in a thin layer of flour (1), add some filling in little bumps, distant circa 2cm center to center (2), finally lay a layer on top and cut with the ravioli wheel (3). If using a mold the procedure is identical, but use a rolling pin to cut them.