Gluten-free almost for free

If you have read "Modernist Cuisine", you can find plenty of recipes that involve the use of xantham gum and other very interesting products that cost a lot of money.
What I like about pasta, apart from the taste of course, it's that it is cheap. Why would I make a dish that cost me 20 times more when I can find a cheaper solution on the shelves of a normal shop? After all, as they teach in that big book, it's about chemistry.
Let's remember that pasta, as well as pizza (the first version, fried in pork fat on the street corners) was peasants' food. They would have not spent half of their month income to give food to their gluten-intolerant friend. Yet they would have found a solution to feed him or her that would guarantee them to do it again the day after because they could afford it.

My solution is once again starch. This time I mixed potato and corn starch with boiling water and buckwheat flour. I worked the dough very quickly and made a sheet with the rolling pin. Unlike the first time for tortellini, when I found out that a cold dough would be better to work. Of course, the result is different from what I consider as Quality pasta. I've been taught to make the pasta sheet as thin as possible. But compromise sometimes is not a bad concept. In Bologna they say "rather than nothing, it's better rather".

Yield: 4-6 people

Dough

• 300gr buckwheat flour
• 150gr potato starch
• 150gr corn starch
• oil
• boiling water

Stuffing

•  350gr ricotta
• 150gr Gorgonzola
• salt
• pepper 

The stuffing is quite easy to make: mix ricotta and gorgonzola with a fork and some salt and pepper to taste.

Forget about a thin sheet of pasta and put little stuffing on each 6cm wide square.

Close quickly as long as the dough is warm. It will soon become a piece of frail wood.

Boil in salted water and toss in a frying pan with cream.
Grate some Parmigiano or Grana on top and add some walnuts.

Thick as a brick - Almost-gluten-free tortelloni

For U.Eco when we face a text we respond to it by interpreting the pictured world in comparison to the one we live in. It's called the "theory of possible worlds".
I lack of fantasy: I can't imagine a world without pasta. Sometimes I don't even want to hear about it. I don't want to cook it, I'd never make it. But still I could never say "nevermore".
I remember I read once about a study (I can't guarantee how serious it was, I had news of it on a newspaper) that said Italians get depressed if they don't eat pasta for more than a week. Although it is a very stereotypical assessment, there must be some truth in it.

Because I can't think a pasta-less world, I always wonder how to make it eatable for eveybody.

The first week I tried almost successfully to make tortellini with rice flour. Today the flour came from buckwheat and the pasta tortelloni. Still it didn't quite work. I had to make a fix.
When we make a castle with sand on the seashore, we rely on the water to keep the grains stuck together.
Buckwheat flour was the same. As long as it was wet, it was looking smooth. But I couldn't make a sfoglia with it.
So I added some flour (normal) and some water and used the gluten. Again.

Yield: 4-6 people

Dough

• 250gr buckwheat flour
• 150gr flour
•  water

Stuffing

• 4 bananas (more or less 400gr in total)
• 200gr dates (without the seed)

 With a fork, make a paste of the banana. Sprinkle with lemon juice to avoid it darkens.
Cut the dates in small pieces (or mince them if you're in a hurry).

Put the stuffing on 6cm wide squares of pasta. You can't make it thin this time: it would destroy.

Make tortelloni and dust them copiously with the flour.

If you have one, put them on a rack.

 Cook them in lightly salted boiling water.
Toss them in a pan with some oil and some vegetable cream.
Dust them with grated chocolate and coconut powder.

Tortelloni with ricotta and dried figs

I remember that around fifteen years ago I went with a friend to a restaurant in Faenza, in Romagna. Its name was "Spaghetti notte" and they served exclusively spaghetti. As an italian, I had tried them with pretty much all the possible sauces, but I saw something on the menu that I would have never imagined: spaghetti with Nutella. So I took them and, although I don't have a sweet tooth, I really liked them.

Pasta can go along with sweetness very well. Here in Poland, where I'm living, they have a big tradition of pierogi with sweet stuffings. In Italy, not vey much.

Today's recipe is simple yet very satisfying to enjoy after a meal, or even as a break at 5pm.

Yield: 4-6 servings (although they could double if you just offer half portions).

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 4 eggs

Stuffing

• 500gr ricotta
• 250gr dried figs

With a meat mincer, make a puree of the figs and mix it with the ricotta.

Apply on 6cm wide squares of pasta.

Make tortelloni.

Cook them in boiling water with just a pinch of salt. Brown some butter in a frying pan and add some cream. Drain the tortelloni and toss them with the sauce.
Add a few walnuts and some drops of honey.

Tortelloni with ricotta, spinach and salami

Today's tortelloni are not very different from those presented the first day, I just added some salami and some dried tomatoes, but the result was a stronger taste and a drier filling. Don't put salt in it, or they will become very unpleasant because salami is already very tasty.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 4 eggs

Stuffing

• 500gr ricotta
• 70gr of spinach leaves, thinly chopped
• 90gr Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
• 120gr sundried tomatoes, in oil
• 150gr of salami
• nutmeg

 Mince the meat and the tomatoes and mix with the spinach.

Filling on 6cm wide squares.

Cook them in boiling salted water, drain and put in a hot pan with some tomato sauce, add some slices of cheese and garnish with parsley.

Tortelloni with ricotta, spinach and smoked salmon

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When I bought the smoked salmon for the tortellini, it was really a lot and I thought to use it for tortelloni, too.
As this is the week of the variations on the ricotta and spinach theme (with of course the odd one for the vegan recipe), I present you the fish alternative.
As it is smoked and vary savory, I suggest you don't add any salt or pepper. You may like some drops of lemon, though.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 4 eggs

Stuffing

• 350gr ricotta
• 300gr smoked salmon
• 100gr of spinach leaves, thinly chopped
• 100gr almond flakes

Put the filling on 6cm wide squares. Make tortelloni (of course).

Cook in salted boiling water, drain and stir fry with oil, some chopped garlic and chili pepper, if you feel like.
Garnish with parsley and some more almond flakes.

Vegan tortelloni

Normally, the stuffing for tortelloni should be as creamy as possible.
When they melt in your mouth and get married (an idealistic happy marriage's that happens more often in a kitchen that in real life, unfortunately) with the sauce of your choice, tortelloni are a treat that's hard to leave behind.

Before I started to make pasta for real, that is before I attended the "Vecchia Scuola Bolognese", I remember going to shops and buy 500gr packs of tortelloni. They were meant for 4 people, but I would wolf them down in 10 minutes like I was just having a quick breakfast.
This doesn't mean I won't do the same with the pasta I can now make by myself, I only said this because for me it was a personal party based on creaminess.

Here's the recipe for your vegan tortelloni.

Yield: 4-6 servings.

Dough:

• 400gr flour
• water
• oil
• curry powder

Stuffing:

• 3 avocados
• 180gr pistachio nuts, roasted and salted
• 100gr spinach leaves

 With a mincer grind the ingredients for the stuffing.
I once met some guys from El Salvador that were making Guacamole in a shop in the New York State. They didn't use lemon to avoid darkening of the avocado paste, they just left the seed. It works.
Put them on 6cm squares of pasta sheet and close.

Serve them hot, after boiling them in salted water, with aglio, olio e peperoncino sauce.
Garnish with parsley and that's it!

Tortelloni

On the guide for my pasta customizable pasta cutter, the difference between what is a tortellino and a tortellone lies in 5mm.
At 4.5 cm it says we have a maxi-tortellino, at 5cm we have a small tortellone.

Today we'll start a week dedicated to the creamier and bigger brother of tortellino. The first recipe is the traditional one from Bologna.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Dough

• 400gr flour
• 4 eggs

Stuffing

• 500gr ricotta
• 100gr of spinach leaves, thinly chopped
• 150gr Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
• salt
• nutmeg

Mix the ingredients and dispose the stuffing in balls on squares 6cm wide.
Close as for the tortellino.

Cook in boiling water until they start to float. Allow them to cook for a couple of minutes. Drain and put in a hot pan with butter and sage (or mixed herbs as in here).
Spread some Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano.