Stuffed pasta for Sandra

ingredients:

150 grams frozen spinach, defrosted. (I suppose you could use fresh spinach if you like, but I always just keep a few bags of organic spinach in the freezer for convenience. You'll have to be careful about the quantity of flour added if you use fresh)

1 egg

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp sea salt

dash nutmeg

dash black pepper

1 1/2 to 2 cups kamut pastry flour (whole grain)

directions:

1. pulse the spinach in the food processor until it is a green gooey mass of puree

2. add the egg, almond flour, sea salt, and black pepper, and whirl until  combined

3. add the first 1 1/2 cups of flour and pulse until combine. add the remaining flour a little at a time and pulse until the dough forms a firm ball. once the ball forms, don't add any more flour.

4.  wrap in parchment followed by a plastic bag, and set it aside to rest.

filling:

500 g pressed cottage cheese (because that is what I had on hand)

1 shallot

1 onion

50 g parmesan, grated

2 eggs

sea salt 

pepper

directions:

1. saute the onion and shallot in coconut oil with salt and pepper

2. when cool, mix into the pressed cottage cheese (or use ricotta)

3. mix in the egg

4. spoon a little onto each rolled out circle of pasta

Making the stuffed pasta:

directions:

1. divide your dough into 15 gram balls using a kitchen scale. Or, if you are not as ocd as I am, you can just make smallish balls of dough. A little less than an inch in diameter is good.

2. keeping the balls covered by parchment topped by a damp cloth as you work so they don't dry out, roll them out and fill them, one by one. I guess they roll out to about 2 1/2 or 3 inches in diameter

3. the dough is a little sticky, but I wouldn't add extra flour. Just work quickly so your rolling pin doesn't get dry and crusty.

4. Put some filling near the center of the circle of dough. A little spoonful will do it.

5. fold the dough over itself in half, and press the edges tight. I actually find this easiest to do by picking it up and pinching the edges together

6. Avoid over-filling the dough, or you won't get a good seal, and there will be hell to pay when you boil  the pasta.

7. I do a quick press on both sides with the times of a fork. Who knows if this does anything. But it looks cute.

8. As I work, I line up the finished pasta on a lined baking sheet. You don't want them to stack, because they will stick to each other. They freeze really well, and can be boiled from frozen in about 15 minutes. To freeze, put the filled baking sheet in the freezer until the pasta is frozen through. It can then be bagged and tagged appropriately.

9. you can also use them the same day. To store for a few hours, put them in layers separated by parchment (including underneath them) in an airtight container in the fridge. 

10. To cook from fresh, bring a largish pot of water to a boil (put a little olive oil in the water). When the water has reached a boil, add the pasta. Once the water returns to the boil, cook for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. You can either toss them in a pan with a little tomato sauce, or simply top them with our favourite tomato sauce (or top them with a little olive oil (or coconut oil) and parmesan).