Last tail - Tailed tortelli with cauliflower and pistachio nuts

The last episode of the tailed tortelli is a creamy vegan one. I found that cauliflower is a a perfect alternative to ricotta, in a vegan point of view: it's white, it's creamy, it's got an elastic taste. You get the right ingredient, you got a
winner.
Hopefully, this can be a winner for you, too.

Dough

• 400gr Manitoba flour
• water
• oil
• salt

Stuffing

• 400gr cauliflower, boiled and pan fried with oil and garlic
• 200gr pistachio nuts, salted (without the shells, of course)

Mince the stuffing as thin as you like.

Boil in salted water and drain when they start to float. Then toss in a frying pan with extra-virgin olive oil, caramelized garlic and chili.
Save the oil and make an emulsion with lemon juice and dill (quickly, before the pasta gets cold).

Vegan tailed tortelli with avocado and peanuts

The first time I ate avocado was almost twenty years ago, my aunt cut some slices and added just some salt, pepper and oil. I fell in love straight away with that greasy fruit with a delicate, nutty taste.
I always use the Hass variety because it's almost always good. Fuerte is like a lottery: once is good, the next is bitter or never ripe.
I'm not an expert of Thai cuisine, but once I went to a restaurant and got these wonderful noodles with peanut cream, so I wanted to reproduce part of that experience in today's recipe. To grind the peanuts I used a mincer, the mixer takes to much oil and effort. The result was very good, I suggest you try it to make your own peanut butter, too.

Yield:4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr Manitoba flour
• water
• oil
• salt

Stuffing

• 4 avocados (around 500gr in total)
• 300gr roasted peanuts
• salt
• pepper

Mince (preferably) or blend the ingredients of the stuffing. You could add some lemon juice if you like to avoid darkening. I just use the avocado seed.

Put the stuffing on 7cm squares of pasta sheets and close for tailed tortello.

Boil in salted water, drain and toss in frying pan with oil and vegetables cut in julienne. I used carrot, bamboo, peppers, shitake mushrooms. It's more Chinese than Thai, I know, but it went great with the peanuts.

Not an easy task - Tailed tortelli with jam

Today's tortelli have a very quick stuffing to prepare, but they are very challenging to close because of its almost liquid state and the high sugar content. If any of the borders of the squares touches the stuffing, you can pray your favorite saint to help you to close the tortello. But you won't. While a slightly greasy stuffing is not a big problem, a sugary one is almost always a synonym of big trouble in making your stuffed pasta: it will become slippery and only by using some sort of super glue will you be able to make it. So, today's advice is: make sure the filling stays in the center!

Yield:4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 2 eggs
• water
•  salt

Stuffing

• 450gr ricotta cheese
• 250gr jam (here, prunes)

As you can see, this tortello lost some of its stuffing. It became useless.

Cook in boiling water with some salt. Drain when they start to float. Toss in frying pan with butter and season with sour cream. Garnish with a sesame bar in pieces.

Tailed tortelli with ricotta, coconut powder and poppy seeds

I'm getting a lot of fun in inventing sweet stuffing for pasta. I find that after a meal it's really enjoyable to eat a couple of creamy tortelli with a sugary taste. Maybe I'm developing a sweet taste.

Yield:4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 2 eggs
• water
• some salt

Stuffing

• 500gr ricotta cheese
• 200gr powdered coconut
• 80gr poppy seeds
• 100gr brown sugar (optional)

Coconut and chocolate are true soul mates.
Here I tossed the tortelli in a pan with browned butter, after boiling them in slightly salted water.
Then I cut some milk chocolate with hazelnuts and put it on top.

Not for vampires - Tailed tortelli with cauliflower and feta cheese (and a lot of garlic)

I like very much cauliflower, its taste is delicate and is perfect with garlic, my favorite plant. In this very quick dish, I left both in chunks to fully enjoy the crunchiness of the first and the scent of the latter. Together with feta cheese, they make a light version of stuffing.

Yield:4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 2 eggs
• water
• some salt

Stuffing

• 300gr cauliflower, boiled and pan fried with oil and garlic
• 200gr feta cheese

As usual, put the stuffing on 7cm squares of pasta sheet.

Boil in salted water, the season with some extra-virgin oil and cream. Garnish with dill.

Looking like a fish: tailed tortelli, cauliflower, salmon and sunflower seeds

In the first restaurant where I worked in Warsaw I proposed to make tailed tortelli with a fish stuffing. They look like small fishes, I thought, so they will be a perfect dress for a fish stuffing. Here's a different recipe, let's get over the past!

Yield:4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 2 eggs
• water
• some salt

Stuffing

• 300grsmoked salmon
• 300gr cauliflower, boiled and pan fried with oil and garlic
• 100gr sunflower seeds

Stuffing on 7cm square of pasta sheet.

Cook in salted boiling water. Season with some good quality extra-virgin olive oil and lime slices.

Tortelli with the tail

This week we'll see some variations around the traditional tortello from Piacenza, a city in Emilia, closer to Milan then Bologna, although in the same region of the latter.
It's called con la coda because it has a small tail at the end. I've always enjoyed it on Christmas time. My father's family is from Piacenza and, because I'm vegetarian, they always bought a huge box of these tortelli.
They literally melt in your mouth and it's hard to stop eating them.
The dough for the pasta is different from that from Bologna: there is some salt and water. The stuffing changes, too: there is a lot more spinach (or herbs).

Yield: 4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 2 eggs
• water
• some salt

Stuffing

• 300gr ricotta
• 300gr spinach (or herbs or chard) leaves, boiled, squeezed and thinly chopped
• 200gr Grana Padano, grated
• salt
• nutmeg

Put the stuffing on 7-8cm squares of pasta sheet.

Put the square on your left hand, fold the corner facing you upwards with your right thumb. Then, alternatively with the index and the thumb, gently fold the pasta to close the stuffing in.

Cook in boiling salted water, when they float, drain and season with melted butter and grated Grana Padano.