Ricotta and Spinach Tortelloni in a Garlic Cream Sauce

Fall is here and my travel schedule is crazy. I'm traveling 1-4 days every week through the beginning of December. I don't mind the travel or being busy (busy is good!), but I do miss cooking when I'm away. One can only take so much room service and restaurant food!

So my goal is to make something new every Sunday - I promise to have at least one blog update a week!

Yesterday I was in the mood for pasta, and didn't want to just use the stuff out of the box. I found this recipe on the Epicurious web site. I followed the pasta instructions, but did not make the sauce in the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 10-ounce package spinach leaves, stems trimmed
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Ground nutmeg
• 24 square wonton wrappers
• I added 3 cloves garlic, and a pinch each of salt and pepper

Directions

• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute.
• Add spinach; cook until most of liquid evaporates, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Drain and cool. Squeeze out liquid.
• Place spinach in processor. (I chopped the spinach myself and just mixed the ingredients instead of using my food processor)
• Add ricotta and blend well.
• Blend in 1/2 cup Parmesan.
• Season filling to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

To assemble the pasta:

• Step 1: Place 1 wonton wrapper on work surface. Brush edges with water. Place 1 scant tablespoon filling on 1 half. Fold diagonally in half, forming triangle. Press edges to seal.

• Step 2: Overlap 2 ends together; press to adhere.

After the second step this is what I ended up with and it didn't look right to me:

So with the next few wrappers I tucked the top down and squished them a bit. I don't think this is how they are supposed to look, but I thought they were cute and it worked for me!

• Repeat with remaining wrappers, water and filling. Place in single layer on floured baking sheet. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover with plastic; chill.)
• Working in batches, cook tortelloni in pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowls.

Note: be sure to keep a damp rag on top of the wonton wrappers that are waiting to be used otherwise they get dried out and hard very quickly.

As I took the pasta out of the boiling water, I drizzled them with a touch of olive oil so they wouldn't stick. I was very impressed with how they looked after cooking -

I made a simple cream sauce -

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan
• Add 2 cloves minced garlic and 1/2 chopped shallot; saute 2-3 min
• Add 1 c light cream, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp dried parsley, pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a steady simmer for 5 minutes.
• Whisk in cheese; I used an Italian blend of pecorino romano, parmesan, asiago, and fontina.
• Stir until creamy; keep warm over low heat stirring occasionally.

I was very happy with both the pasta and the sauce. Although the assembly process was a lot of work, it was fun and I love doing something on Sundays that I wouldn't normally do on a weekday. I'd recommend this recipe, and using wonton wrappers for pasta is so easy. Someday I'll make my own pasta dough, but for now wonton wrappers work just fine.