Ricotta and Asiago Tortellini From Scratch

Ricotta and Asiago Tortellini From Scratch.

The pasta is made from scratch, as the name suggests. The ricotta for the filling is homemade too.

I love making everything from scratch in my kitchen. It’s the process that I’m in love with.

I understand that most people don’t like to spend all day in the kitchen. But sometimes it’s fun to spend all day in the kitchen. If you are me, that’s everyday. But yes, I understand, busy lives, etc.

You don’t have to make the ricotta from scratch or anything, you can use store-bought and that would cut you a step.

However, anytime I post anything with fresh pasta on the internet, I get all these people telling me how they have always wanted to make pasta from scratch.

So, here, if you’ve ever wanted to make your own tortellini, I can show you how to make this cute little shape, which is my favorite! It will take you a few hours in the kitchen, but it will be worthwhile. I promise!

How to make Tortellini from scratch

First, roll out your pasta. I roll it up to number 6 on my pasta machine.

Whenever I am going to roll out pasta, I grab a baking sheet, a bunch of clean kitchen towels, and set them aside.

As I form the sheets of dough, I set them in the floured baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel, set the next sheets of dough on top, cover with another kitchen towel, making layers. This way, the pasta won’t stick. Keep the dough covered at all times so it doesn’t dry out.

Start by cutting out circles of pasta dough.

Place a small amount of filling in the center.

Dip your finger in some water and go around the edges of half of the circle, to help seal it. Don’t use too much water. A little will go a long long way!

Fold dough over itself and press down with your fingers to seal.

They will look like cute empanadas!

Finally, bring both ends together and use a droplet of water to seal.

And after hours of work, the results will be something like this:

Actually, the picture above is my tortellini from scratch filled with creamy spinach that I made a while ago. I served this with a garlic rosemary infused butter sauce.

Making tortellini from scratch really isn’t hard. It’s time consuming, and patience consuming. I never minded the work, though. Even when I didn’t have a pasta maker, I’d still make pasta from scratch, and roll it out with a rolling pin. I recognize that having a pasta maker makes everything faster and I would totally recommend getting one, if you want to start making pasta from scratch.

I have the KitchenAid attachment, that I use to make pasta. If you don’t have a KitchenAid, you can just buy a regular pasta maker. I got this one for my dad last year, which works great for him, he really loves it.

If you want some more tips on how to make pasta from scratch, I talk about ingredients, and everything else on this post right here, where I make Basil infused Pasta.

And here, you can check out some other recipes that have been on my mind lately. The Cheddar Jalapeño Sourdough Bread would be a great accompaniment for this delicious tortellini from scratch!

Ricotta and Asiago Tortellini

Ricotta and Asiago Tortellini. Creamy and delicious!! Fresh pasta, homemade ricotta for the filling, doesn't get much better than this. Just pour some delicious sauce, or some herb butter sauce on top of this tortellini, and you will have the most fantastic meal ever.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 people

Calories 550 kcal

Ingredients

  

Fresh Pasta

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs

Ricotta Asiago Filling

• For homemade Ricotta or substitute for 1 1/2 cups of store-bought ricotta
• 6 cups whole milk
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
• 1 cup shredded asiago cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

 

Fresh Pasta

• Mix flour and salt together. You can make the dough on your counter or inside of a bowl.
• Either way, make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour egg yolks and eggs in. If you are doing this on your countertop, be careful so the egg mixture won’t leak out. Make sure the hole you open in the center is deep enough to keep the eggs in.
• Proceed by throwing flour from the edges over egg mixture with a fork and slowly incorporating the ingredients together.
• Once ingredients are incorporated, start kneading by hand until you see no more streaks of flour and the dough is soft and homogeneous. This usually takes me about 10 minutes. You can use your KitchenAid and the dough hook to do this, I do like to use my hands, though because they work so much better to incorporate the ingredients beautifully.
• Now that you have your dough formed into a ball, you can cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for at least 1 hour. Or you can put it in the fridge overnight.
• When it’s time to roll it out, I do recommend a pasta machine. If you don’t have one, be ready to work your arms.
• For this amount of pasta, I usually divide the dough in half, then into quarters and then into eighths, and roll each piece individually.
• On my pasta maker, I roll on setting 1 once, then fold the dough in half, roll it once again on setting 1, fold it in half a third time and roll it one last time on the first setting.
• From then on, I roll it once in each setting until number 6.
• As you roll each piece of dough, leave a baking sheet and plenty of clean kitchen towels at hand. Sprinkle flour all over the baking sheet and place the first piece of rolled dough. Sprinkle flour over the dough and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. It’s important to leave it covered otherwise it will dry up and get hard.
• Sprinkle flour over kitchen towel, place second piece of rolled dough, cover with another towel. And keep doing this until you have rolled all pieces.
• Use a cookie cutter to cut dough circles. I used a cutter that had a 3.5” diameter. You can use a slightly bigger or smaller size cutter.
• You can gather the scrapes from cutting the dough into circles, re-roll it and cut more circles.
• I do not recommend doing this more than once though, because your dough might become too tough and overworked.
• Fill each round with about 1 teaspoon of filling (amount of filling will depend on what size you cut your circles).
• Dip your finger in water and run around the edge of half of the dough circle, to help seal the tortellini.
• Fold dough over itself, making an empanada shape.
• Press edges down with your fingers to seal.
• Bring both ends of the tortellini together and use a small amount of water to seal it.
• Just remember, don’t use a whole lot of water, I’m talking here a very small droplet. A little will go a long way.
• Place shaped tortellini in a floured baking sheet.
• Store in the fridge until you’re ready to boil. Sometimes I like to store them in the freezer too.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil with a tablespoon of salt. Once water comes to a boil, add tortellini carefully and boil them for a few. Cooking time will depend on how thin you’ve rolled your pasta. It usually takes me about 6 minutes to cook a batch of tortellini.
• Don’t overcrowd the pan, cook them in batches if you must. Remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon.

Ricotta Asiago FillingInstructions

• Bring milk, heavy cream and salt to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Don’t let it actually boil. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. As soon as you see the first bubbles surfacing, add vinegar, turn heat off and stir. Let mixture sit for a few minutes.
• Line a large mesh strainer with two layers of cheese cloth over a large bowl. Pour milk through strainer and let it drain for at least 1 hour.
• Refrigerate for a couple hours before using.
• I like to cover my ricotta with the overhanging pieces of the cheesecloth and store in my freezer as it is, in the bowl lined with the mesh strainer and let the ricotta drain overnight or for a few hours, this way you’ll obtain a very firm ricotta.
• This recipe makes a little bit over 2 cups of ricotta.
• You will use 1 1/2 for this recipe. Just use the rest for something else. Spread it on a slice of crusty bread and drizzle some olive oil on top. Eat it in a sandwich, with cheese and veggies! Homemade ricotta is incomparable!
• Mix 1 1/2 cups of ricotta with asiago, salt, dried herbs, and garlic powder. Taste for salt.

Notes

STORAGE: Uncooked tortellini will keep in the fridge for 1 day. It will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months. TO FREEZE: Simply place tortellini on top of a lightly floured baking sheet. Put tray in the freezer, let tortellini become frozen. Then, you can remove them to a ziplock back and keep in your freezer for up to 2 months.

Keyword asiago, ricotta, tortellini