homemade tortellini

I still remember the day I first made pasta fetuccine from scratch. Inspired by an article in a food magazine, it was the most labor intensive cooking project I ever attempted. I had no pasta making gadgets at that time so I just used a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut the strands of pasta with a knife. That was many years ago and thanks to modern gadgets, pasta making is now a much more enjoyable task. The first time I tried the Kitchenaid pasta maker, I was very impressed with how effortless it was to use. It took some practice at first along with learning the correct consistency of the dough. Too much moisture in the dough will make the strands of pasta stick together when they're cut so the right balance of wet and dry ingredients is important.

ready to cook tortellini pasta filled with ricotta cheese

I've made ravioli a few times but for a change, I felt inspired and in a good mood as I tried to make my first batch of tortellini pasta. I was happy with the result (as shown above and below). I made a simple ricotta cheese filling which turned out just right with the rich bolognese sauce.

I like adding whole wheat to the pasta flour

There are so many ideas for the filling and I'm thinking of adding spinach or mushrooms to the mixture next time. It would also be a nice touch to add pureed spinach to come up with a bright green colored pasta dough as I have done before (see post). With some helpful tools, pasta making is a fun cooking project.

tortellini with a rich bolognese sauce and some pan-fried sausages