Anna's Tortellini

I started with a lovely roast:

Flay a pork loin and season it with olive oil, garlic, pepper, sage, rosemary, fennel seed, and add a layer of curred meats such as Mortadella and Prosciutto. I roll it up, tie it off and put into an uncovered roasting pan and pour a little pinot grigio over top.

20 minutes at 450 to get a sear on the outside (or this can be done in a pan) and then turn down to 300 to cook it low and slow for 3-4 hours depending on weight. Thickest part should clock in at 180°

Once the roast was done we feasted on the evening of day one.  The morning of the next day I chop up half of the beautiful chunk of succulent meat to prepare it for filling. 

This meat heap was then minced and mixed with approximately a ratio of 2:1 meat to cheese. I chose Asiago and Parmigiano cheese. This makes a delicious herb-rich filling for my little tortellinis.

That's when dough rolling began and the hand bruises commenced. 

With the all purpose tree-hugger flour I used it turned out to be 1 egg to approximately 3/4 cup of flour, maybe even a little less.

Each thinly flattened sheet of dough is then cut into squares to receive a dollop of filling and with a wet finger folded into a sealed triangle and then corners pinched together. A perfect little purse of meat and cheese. And no worries if you have clumsy fingers go a little big to make tortelloni instead (the big brother of the delicate little ones).

As I cranked out the beautiful little pouches I fill a tupperware with 1 layer of tortellini and pop into the freezer while I roll out the next batch, once first layer is frozen I combine contents with another one already frozen. An assembly line of flash freezing to avoid sticking together. I highly recommend freezing even if you're going to eat them same day to get a good cook on them in the broth.

This recipe makes a huge batch, I just keep rolling dough until I run out of filling, and if you fatigue, you can always boil up some pasta put a little olive oil in a pan and heat it up and mix in your pasta for a quick pasta dinner.

But go big if you can, ther eis nothing more thrilling than knowing you get to have tortellini for days or even weeks to fade the memory of your hand bruises from dough rolling. You could also invest in a pasta press...

Chicken-based bone broth Brodo:

3 Celery stalks
3 Carrots
1 Yellow onion
  Sautéed in Olive Oil with Pinot Grigio, salt, pepper, fennel, sage, rosmary, garlic

Add
1 Chicken carcass
1 Bay leaf

6 cups of water