Tortellini and Other Filled Shapes

Cooking Skills: Pasta 2

Chapter 5 · Tortellini and Other Filled Shapes

Skill goal

Fold, seal and cook filled pasta shapes from squares, strips and rectangles.

The basics

Filled pasta shapes all follow the rules of chapter 4: a dry filling, a thin sheet, a good seal with no trapped air and gentle cooking. What changes is how you fold the dough.

Shape	Cut	Fold	Difficulty
Ravioli	Squares or circles from a double sheet	Two layers pressed together	Easy
Tortelloni	7 cm squares	Corner to corner, then wrap the corners round a finger	Easy to medium
Tortellini	4 cm squares	The same, but smaller	Medium: small and fiddly
Agnolotti	Strip of dough	Fold over a row of filling, pinch between	Medium
Cannelloni	Rectangles	Rolled round filling, then baked	Easy to medium

Work with one square at a time and keep the rest covered. Dough that dries out won't seal.
Smaller is harder. A tortellino takes about 20 seconds once you've got it, but the first ten will be wonky. That's part of the learning.
The filling must be cooked or cooked through. Meat fillings use cooked meat only here, and filled pasta that contains raw egg in the filling must be simmered until the filling is hot all the way through.

Try it

Level 1 · Start here

Tortelloni (big folded squares)

1 hour 15 minutesabout 20 tortelloni (2 to 3 portions)the easiest folded shape

Tortelloni are large tortellini. Because you fold a square instead of twisting a small circle, they are quick to learn. Use the spinach and ricotta filling from chapter 4.

Ingredients (3 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
1 pinch fine salt
2 tbsp fine semolina (or extra flour), for dusting
1 small egg or a little water, for sealing
200 g ricotta, drained in a sieve for 30 minutes
60 g cooked spinach, squeezed completely dry, finely chopped
30 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
20 g butter, to serve
4 sage leaves, to serve

Make the dough: mix the flour, salt and eggs, knead for 8 to 10 minutes and rest for 30 minutes (chapter 1). Meanwhile, make the filling.
Filling: mix the ricotta, spinach, parmesan, nutmeg and salt until smooth. The mixture must be dry enough to hold its shape on a spoon.
Roll the dough to 1 to 1.5 mm and cut it into 7 cm squares. Keep the squares you aren't using under a cloth.
Put a level teaspoon of filling in the centre of a square. Brush the edges with the beaten egg or water, and fold it corner to corner into a triangle. Press out the air from the filling outwards, and seal the edges firmly.
Hold the long edge of the triangle, and bring its two bottom corners together round your fingertip. Overlap them, press to seal, and fold the pointed tip down. Set on a semolina-dusted tray, not touching.
Simmer gently in plenty of salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until they float and the edges are tender. Lift out with a slotted spoon.
Melt the butter in a pan with the sage for 1 to 2 minutes. Roll the tortelloni in it and serve.

Simpler still

If the ring shape is fiddly, leave them as triangles (agnolotti-style half-moons are next in this chapter). They taste the same.

Level 2 · Classic

Tortellini in broth

1 hour 30 minutesabout 30 tortellini (3 portions)no wine, as in the old Bolognese recipe

A tortellino is a small ring of pasta around a savoury filling, and the traditional way to eat it is in a clear broth. The filling is cooked chicken and ham, never raw meat, so it is safe once the pasta is simmered.

Ingredients (3 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
1 pinch fine salt
2 tbsp fine semolina (or extra flour), for dusting
1 small egg or a little water, for sealing
100 g cooked chicken breast, finely minced or blitzed
50 g cooked ham, finely chopped
30 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch nutmeg
1 egg yolk, from a Lion-marked egg (for the filling), cooked in the pasta
600 ml chicken stock (made with a stock cube), for the broth
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Make the dough: mix the flour, salt and eggs, knead for 8 to 10 minutes and rest for 30 minutes (chapter 1). Meanwhile, make the filling.
Filling: mix the chicken, ham, parmesan, nutmeg and egg yolk into a stiff paste. Don't taste it, because it contains raw egg yolk. It will cook inside the pasta.
Roll the dough to 1 mm and cut 4 cm squares. Put half a teaspoon of filling on each, brush the edges, fold into a triangle, press out the air and seal.
Wrap each triangle round your fingertip as in the tortelloni recipe, overlapping the two corners and pressing to seal. Set on a semolina-dusted tray.
Heat the stock to a gentle simmer. Add the tortellini and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until they float and the filling is steaming hot all the way through (cut one open to check).
Ladle into bowls and add the parsley and a little more parmesan.

Cook the filling through

The yolk in the filling is raw until the tortellini simmer. Cut one open: the filling must be hot all the way through, with no cold or pink spot. Use a probe if you have one (70°C for 2 minutes).

Level 2 · Pinched

Agnolotti (pinched half-moons)

1 hour 30 minutesabout 30 agnolotti (3 portions)the quickest filled shape to make

Agnolotti are made by folding a strip of dough over a row of filling and pinching between each mound, a bit like ravioli with a rounded edge. Instead of cutting, you pinch, which seals and divides at once.

Ingredients (3 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
1 pinch fine salt
2 tbsp fine semolina (or extra flour), for dusting
1 small egg or a little water, for sealing
150 g ricotta, drained
100 g cooked leeks (from 1 large leek, sliced and softened in butter), cooled
30 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch salt and pepper
20 g butter, to serve
1 tbsp chopped chives

Make the dough: mix the flour, salt and eggs, knead for 8 to 10 minutes and rest for 30 minutes (chapter 1). Meanwhile, make the filling.
Filling: mix the ricotta, cooled leeks, parmesan and seasoning. The leeks must be cooked and cool so they don't melt the ricotta.
Roll the dough into strips 8 cm wide and 1 mm thick. Pipe or spoon half-teaspoon mounds in a row down the strip, about 3 cm apart, 2 cm from the edge nearest you.
Brush the edges with egg or water. Fold the edge nearest you over the filling, and press down between each mound with your finger and thumb, pinching it into a pillow.
Run a fluted wheel or knife along the long edge, and cut between the pinched points. Dust with semolina.
Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan. Toss the agnolotti in it with the chives.

Level 3 · Baked

Cannelloni with ricotta and spinach

1 hour 30 minutesmakes 8 tubes (4 portions)a baked filled pasta

Cannelloni are rolled sheets of fresh pasta around a filling, covered in sauce and baked. Fresh sheets don't need pre-cooking when they are covered in plenty of sauce.

Ingredients (4 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
1 pinch fine salt
250 g ricotta, drained
100 g frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed completely dry
30 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch nutmeg, salt and pepper
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g)
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
4 basil leaves
40 g mozzarella, torn or grated

Make the dough as in chapter 1 (200 g flour, 2 eggs, a pinch of salt), rest for 30 minutes, and roll it to 1.5 mm. Cut into 8 rectangles, about 10 x 12 cm.
Drop the rectangles into boiling salted water for 1 minute, lift out and lay them flat on an oiled tray or damp cloth, so they don't stick together.
Filling: mix the ricotta, spinach, parmesan and seasoning. Spoon a line of filling along one long edge of each rectangle and roll up.
Sauce: warm the oil with the garlic over a low heat for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, a pinch of salt and the basil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Heat the oven to 190°C fan (210°C conventional, gas 6 to 7). Spread a third of the sauce in a baking dish, lay the tubes seam-side down on top, cover with the rest of the sauce and scatter over the mozzarella.
Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden and bubbling. It must be steaming hot all the way through.

Without pre-boiling

Thinner fresh sheets (1 mm) can go in raw if they are completely covered in sauce and the dish is covered with foil for the first 25 minutes. Try it as an experiment in chapter 7.

Experiments

Experiment

Folding methods

Which fold do you like?

Make ten tortelloni, folding five by wrapping round your finger and five by leaving as triangles.
Cook them together and compare how they look and eat.

Look for: The ring shape holds more sauce, the triangle is quicker. The taste is the same.

Experiment

Filling dryness

How dry is dry enough?

Make a batch of ricotta filling. Drain half of it in a sieve for 30 minutes and use the other half straight from the tub.
Fill and cook the same number of tortelloni from each.

Look for: The undrained ricotta is runny and the pasta bursts or tastes of boiled dough. The drained one stays inside.

Experiment

Boil or simmer

How hard should the water bubble?

Cook five filled pasta in a hard rolling boil and five in a gentle simmer for the same time.
Compare how many burst or split.

Look for: The boiled ones are more likely to split. Gentle is the rule for filled pasta.

Experiment

Fresh or frozen

Does freezing change them?

Freeze half of the tortelloni on a tray, then bag them. After a day, cook them from frozen for 5 to 6 minutes, and cook the fresh ones.
Compare the texture.

Look for: Frozen ones need about a minute longer, and are almost as good as fresh. Don't thaw them first.

Tasting notes

What I tried	Method or amount	What I saw	What I thought	Will I do it again?
Tortelloni
Tortellini in broth
Agnolotti
Cannelloni
Fold method
Drained vs undrained
Boil vs simmer
Fresh vs frozen

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	What to do
Shapes come undone	Dough dried out, or not enough water or egg	Keep dough covered and brush the edges
Pasta bursts	Air trapped, overfilled, or boiled hard	Press out the air, fill less, simmer gently
Filling leaks into the water	Too wet	Drain the ricotta, dry the vegetables
Tough, doughy tips	The folded corners are double thickness	Roll thinner and press the corners flat
Cannelloni stick together	Pre-boiled sheets not laid out	Lay flat on oiled tray or damp cloth
Cannelloni dry on top	Not enough sauce	Cover the tubes completely with sauce and foil

Food safety: filled pasta

The dough contains raw egg and raw flour. The Food Standards Agency advises against eating or tasting uncooked flour or dough, because raw flour is not treated to kill bacteria such as E. coli. Don't taste the dough or any filling that contains raw egg, wash your hands, the board and your tools after handling raw dough, and use Lion-marked eggs. Cook fresh pasta thoroughly. Pregnant women, children under 5, people aged 65 and over, and anyone with a weakened immune system should be especially careful.

Fillings in this chapter use only cooked meat, cooked vegetables and pasteurised cheese. The tortellini filling also contains a raw egg yolk, so those tortellini must simmer until the filling is hot all the way through (70°C for 2 minutes, or steaming hot when you cut one open). Baked cannelloni must be steaming hot throughout.

Uncooked fresh pasta, which contains raw egg, should be kept in the fridge (0 to 5°C) and cooked within 24 hours, or frozen straight away. (There is no pasta-specific official guidance, so this is a cautious rule based on the Food Standards Agency's general advice on chilling and freezing homemade food.) Freeze it in a single layer on a tray, then bag it, and cook from frozen. Cook frozen filled pasta straight from the freezer, never thawed.

Cooked pasta is a starchy food, and like rice it can grow bacteria if it is left warm. There is no pasta-specific official guidance, so this course uses the cautious rule: cool it quickly (within about an hour), put it in the fridge, and eat it within 24 hours; freeze it if you won't. Reheat until steaming hot all the way through.

Checkpoint: can you do this now?

I can fold tortelloni and tortellini from squares.
I can pinch agnolotti from a strip.
I can roll and bake cannelloni.
I know why filled pasta is simmered, not boiled.
I can freeze filled pasta and cook it from frozen.

Next chapter

Cooking Skills: Pasta 2, chapter 6 is Gnocchi: light potato, ricotta, pumpkin and semolina dumplings.