pork tortellini with brown butter sauce

Okay, so you’ve already made your summer panzanella salad. Now you have to get crackin on your main dish.

Your going to impress your friends and family with this one. Your going to impress yourself with this one.

Right now your kinda scared and unsure…don’t even worry your little self! It’s easy and fun. And I have a gazillion pictures to help walk you through it.

Here we go.

You will need: 2 c flour, olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, a couple sprigs thyme, salt, pepper, 1 lb ground pork, 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 cup chestnuts or hazelnuts, 7 eggs, watercress,  1/2 lemon, sage, and butter.

Yes, I know not all those ingredients are in the above pictures. I don’t have an explanation for this.

In your mixer ( if you don’t have one get out your mixing bowl) add 1 whole egg, 6 egg yokes, 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  Mix together and then add water a tablespoon at a time until mixture forms a ball.

It’s easier to role out the dough if it is dry and not sticky. If you add to much water and it’s sticky to the touch add more flour a tablespoon at a time.

Dump it out onto a floured surface and give it a good knead.

It should resemble this when you are done.  Let it rest for 30 minutes.

While you are waiting lets mix up the pork filling.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together ground pork, minced garlic clove, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, thyme, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Meg likes to use olive oil as a binder instead of egg. Egg makes her think of meat loaf and she doesn’t do meat loaf. She is the middle child…cut her a break.

Now give it a good mash with the mixing spoons God gave you. Your hands!

Set the mixture in the fridge…now it’s time to get back to the pasta.

Since we are going to boil our tortellini go ahead and get a large pot of water boiling on your stove. Don’t forget to add salt to the water. Pasta is so much better when boiled in salted water.

Cut your dough in half.

We busted out Mom’s pasta roller. I understand that not everyone has a pasta roller. You can use your rolling pin…but I’m warning you…it will be a lot of work. The pasta needs to be pretty thin.

Go ahead and feed half of the dough through the roller.

After each roll make sure to flour on both sides to prevent any sticking. Sticking is bad…flour is your friend.

See how thin it’s getting? It’s ready when you can start to see through it.

Bust out your biscuit cutter or any 3 inch round tool that will cut (a cup even works) and get to cutting your pasta circles.

Flour them as you start to stack them so they don’t…you guessed it…stick together. Cover them with a damp paper towel so they don’t dry out.

You will have these funny shaped leftovers.

They have a fancy Italian name that I have no idea how to say or spell. Something like Magtaliatei. Totally butchered it. All Italians are mad at me now. Sorry!

Anyhow, save these little babies. Flour them, stick them in a container and put them in the freezer. Use them another night to go under your favorite spaghetti sauce.

Back to our tortellini. Brush half of the pasta circles with water, add little clumps of filling, then fold pasta in half and seal with your finger tips. Now they look like half moons.

Pointing the flat edge toward you, wrap the sides together and seal with your fingers. They are now tortellini! Good job!

Place them on a floured cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer.

It’s time to make the sauce.

Add 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2-3 sage leaves and your chopped nuts to a hot pan

After about a minutes or two squeeze in your lemon.

On medium low you want to cook up the butter until it turns brown. Hence the name brown butter sauce. Keep an eye on it and give it some stirs so the nuts toast but don’t burn.

While that is cooking up boil your tortellini for 4-5 minutes or until the meat inside feels firm.

I wont lie… I take one out and cut it in half to see if it’s done. Uncooked meat terrifies me. Unless it’s a steak of course.

After your butter is brown and your pasta is cooked add them babies to the sauce and throw in your watercress. Use a wooden spoon to turn the watercress in so that it gets a chance to wilt.

If you are a chef you give it a few flips instead. I’m no chef…I stick to the wooden spoon method. Salt and pepper to taste.

Plate this baby and dig in. It’s good stuff.

I hope this all makes sense. My heart will be happy if this dish makes one family dinner a happy occasion! If you have any questions, leave a comment with the question and your email address and I will get back to you!

Meg…is there anything that needs to be changed?

Next up…dessert!