Culurzones (potato and mint stuffed pasta with burnt butter and sage)

Stuffed pasta, such as culurzones, requires a slightly softer dough than long pasta shapes such as tagliolini, so this dough has a couple of extra egg yolks added.

Culurzones Credit: Danielle Abou Karam

• serves

  8

• prep

  1:30 hour

• cook

  40 minutes

• difficulty

  Ace

Ingredients

• 500 g strong flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 7 egg yolks
• 2 eggs

Filling

• 700 g Desiree potatoes
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 60 g aged Pecorino Sardo, grated
• ½ cup thinly sliced mint
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• sea salt, to taste

Butter sauce

• 200 g butter, diced
• ¼ cup sage leaves
• ½ lemon, juiced and strained
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves, thinly sliced
• aged Pecorino Sardo, grated

Serves 8 as an entrée.

Standing time: 40 minutes

Instructions

1. For the pasta dough, sift the flour and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Lightly whisk the egg yolks and eggs together. With the motor on low speed, slowly drizzle most of the egg mixture into the flour and mix until absorbed. Start adding the remaining egg, a little at a time, to form a soft dough, you may not need it all. Towards the end it doesn’t take much extra liquid for the dough to become too soft.
2. Tip the dough onto a clean, lightly floured workbench and knead with the heels of your hands for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for about 1 hour. Makes about 850 g. You will only need half the pasta dough for this recipe.
3. Meanwhile, for the filling, place the unpeeled potatoes in a saucepan of lightly salted water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes or until a bamboo skewer can be inserted without any resistance. Drain, peel and pass through a potato ricer into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients and set aside to cool. Place into a piping bag.
4. Cut the pasta dough in half and reserve one half for another use. If using a pasta machine, cut the remaining dough into 4 pieces and flatten one piece slightly, wrapping the remaining pieces in plastic wrap to prevent them drying out. With the pasta machine set on the widest setting, pass the flattened piece of dough through the machine, then fold in half and pass 3 more times, folding in half between each pass.
5. Reduce the setting on the machine by 1 notch and pass the dough through, then pass 2 more times, reducing the setting each time and dusting lightly with flour if it starts to stick. Turn the setting back up to the widest. Fold the pasta sheet in thirds (like a brochure) and pass through the machine again, then pass through 2 more times, reducing the setting each time. Fold the sheet in thirds again, turn the sheet 90 degrees, then turn the setting back to the widest and pass through the machine multiple times, reducing the setting each time, until you reach the desired thickness. When the dough starts to get too long to handle, cut it in half and continue with each half separately. If it becomes too long to handle again, cut in half again. Repeat with the remaining dough.
6. Spread the pasta sheets out onto a clean, lightly floured workbench. Use a 7-cm cutter to stamp out rounds. Place on a lightly floured tray and cover with plastic wrap while you fill them.
7. Place a pasta round on the fingers of one hand and pipe a thick sausage of the potato filling along the centre of it. Turn the bottom of the dough over part of the filling then, using the thumb of the other hand, pinch a small fold of dough over from the left side, then, without moving your thumb, use the first finger to pinch a small fold of dough over from the right side. Continue making tiny pinches from alternate sides, without moving the thumb or other finger, sealing across the top of the parcel in a pleated effect and squeezing excess filling out the end. Twist the end to seal it off. There are 2 important steps to remember: don’t press down so that too much filling is pushed out and make the pinches as small as possible. Place on a tray lined with a kitchen cloth. 
8. Place the butter and sage in a large frying pan over low heat until the butter is golden. Add the lemon juice and parsley and remove from the heat.
9. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add salt to season, then half the culurzones and cook gently for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Using a slotted spoon, scoop them out and place in a colander to drain well. Repeat with remaining culurzones.
10. Add the culurzones to the hot butter mixture, stirring to coat them thoroughly. Transfer to a serving plate, scatter with extra Pecorino and serve.

 

Photography by Danielle Abou Karam.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.