Melchiore’S Culingioni
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 goose egg or 2 hen's eggs
- 2 russet potatoes
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- Butter
- Pecorino sardo to grate (or substitute pecorino romano)*
- For the dumpling filling boil the potatoes until very fork tender. Cut them in halves and put through a ricer
- Into the riced potatoes mix in the ricotta and the mint which you've chopped while your mind was elsewhere.
- Look for the melon baller you stuck in a drawer somewhere
- Prepare your pasta by the standard technique; make a well with the flour, add the eggs and slowly work them in (don't do an Emeril or your well will break). Using your hands and a pastry scraper finish the dough and roll into a ball. Wrap that in cling wrap and let it rest for about thirty minutes.
- Back to old school pasta making; cut off an "egg " of dough---that being the size---and work it through the rollers of your pasta maker, working from the widest setting to ulitimately the second to last setting.
- Roll the pasta into sheets and using a round cutter or an old tuna can cut out round shapes from the sheets. You found the melon baller, right? Scoop a ball of filling into each circle of dough. Using only your finger and cold running water run that finger around the edge of the pasta circles. Fold into a half moon shape and then push and pull to crimp the edge closed. Even if it's not as tightly braided as Melchiore's it will still be okay.
- Melchiore's alternate "Ferrari" technique is to lay the filling out on the pasta sheets, fold them over and then run a fluted pasta wheel around them. Not as pretty but it still works.
- Heat your oven to 350FrnBring a big pot of water to a boil, salt it and then add the dumplings. Remove them when they float to the top and drain.
- To finish lay the dumplings out on an ovenproof tray (pyrex) and top with a few bits of butter and freshly grated pecorino. Stick that in the oven for 2 minutes. Remove from oven, spank it with some more chopped mint and serve your hungry guests.
- *Pecorino sardo, a sheep's milk cheese is preferred but, pecorino romano is more easy to find so use that if you need to.
flour, egg, potatoes, ricotta cheese, mint, butter, grate
Taken from food52.com/recipes/10973-melchiore-s-culingioni (may not work)