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.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword asiago, ricotta, tortellini
Prep Time 2 hourshours20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings 4people
Calories 550kcal
Ingredients
Fresh Pasta
2cupsall-purpose flour
1teaspoonsalt
4egg yolks
2whole eggs
Ricotta Asiago Filling
For homemade Ricottaor substitute for 1 1/2 cups of store-bought ricotta
6cupswhole milk
3cupsheavy cream
1teaspoonkosher salt
5tablespoonswhite distilled vinegar
1cupshredded asiago cheese
1/2teaspoonsalt
1/2teaspoondried basil
1/4teaspoondried oregano
1/4teaspoondried thyme
1/2teaspoongarlic 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.