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When you think of Bolognese, you think of the sauce, right? That sauce comes from the region of Bolognese which is also famous for another Italian dish called Balanzoni.
Looking at the picture, you might think it looks like a tortolini and you wouldn't be wrong. But, Balanzoni is a traditional Bolognese dish that is a large, green, tortolini shapped pasta that is filled with mortadella and ricotta cheese.
The pasta is green due to the spinach used to make the dough and is traditionally served with a brown butter and sage sauce.
And did we mention that this is like a large tortellini because it is actually more like a giant tortellini.
From the stunning color and large shape, these will be a hit for any pasta lover.
Ingredients:
Dough:
250g 00 Flour
1 egg + 1 yolk
250g fresh spinach
Filling:
70g mortadella
70g spinach
150g Ricotta, grated
30g Parm
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
Other:
4tb Butter
Parm, grated
Directions:
In a large pan over medium heat, add 2 tbs olive oil and spinach from both dough and filling. Lightly salt then stir till spinach is wilted. Remove from heat. Once cool, squeeze out any excess moisture. Set aside 70g of the spinach for the filling.
Add the remaining spinach, 1 egg and 1 tbs olive oil to a blender and puree the mixture.
Make a well in the flour and add the spinach mixture and egg yolk. Start stirring to combine then kneed, bringing in as much flour is needed. This generally takes 10-15 min to get the flour absorbed and the dough not sticky.
Wrap dough and let sit for 30 min.
In a blender, add the rough chopped mortadella, ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Blend into a smooth mixture.
When the dough is ready, roll out to 5 (on my machine). Not see thru but 1 before that. Cut the dough into 4in squares. Add 1 - 1.5tbs of filling to each. Fold into a triangle, pushing out the air as you seal. Take the two bottom corners of the triangle, bring them toward each other, and press them together. The result should be just like a big, jumbo-sized tortellini.
Put on a lightly floured sheet pan as you make them. Once done, you can put into the freezer till you are ready to cook.
Bring a large pot of water to a low boil. In another small pot, melt the butter.
When the water is at a boil, add the Balanzoni and cook for 3 min. Do not let the water get to a rapid boil as it can break the Balanzoni apart.
Remove Balanzoni to a bowl and add the butter and grated parm.
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