Pasta Roll with Spinach and Ricotta
This is Ursula Ferrigno’s recipe. You will need an approximately 70 x 50cm piece of muslin, a deep sided roasting pan or a a fish kettle.
For 6 people:
4 egg pasta
Ursula likes to use equal quantities of semola and OO flour. So for a 4 egg pasta she uses
200g semola flour
200g OO flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 eggs
Make a “rabbit hole” (Ursula’s daughter’s phrase) in the mound of flour, pour in the olive oil and the 4 eggs. Whisk them until they are thoroughly incorporated. Only then mix the eggs with the flour and knead it all together.
The dough needs to rest for at least 10 minutes in fridge. Squash it to form a disc so it chills better than a ball. Then roll it out with a rolling pin as thinly as possible – you should be able to see your hand through it. Keep going – pasta is quite resilient!
The filling:
200g spinach, cooked, squeezed dry, and chopped
350g cow’s milk ricotta, drained on any liquid
4 plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1 finely chopped garlic
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil
50g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Mix these all together.
Assembly:
30g butter
8 sage leaves
grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Place the pasta on the muslin and cut it so it’s around 60 x 40 square – ish
Spread the filling over the pasta, leaving space around the edges. Use the muslin to roll the pasta into a ball – it doesn’t have to be tight. Wrap the pasta roll in the muslin and tie both ends with cling film.
Bring salted water to the boil in a capacious deep roasting pan or fish kettle. Lower in the roll and poach for 30 minutes.
Heat the grill.
Remove the roll and leave to cool and drain. Unravel the muslin (but not the roll) and cut it in 2-3 cm slices and place on a grill pan. (If you don’t want to use it all it can be kept in the fridge and used for the next meal). Scatter the slices with some Parmigiano cheese.
Melt the butter with the sage leaves; pour it over the slices and grill for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.