Making pasta

Spinach tortellini with bolognese sauce
This is a recipe I made in January 2023. It is a mixture of different recipes I found online. As a decent researcher I should cite these sources, but most of these sources I can not find on the internet anymore. The main source for the pasta dough is “Pastabijbel” by Roberta Pagnier.

Pasta dough
Ingredients

• 400g 00 flour.
• 200g spinach.
• 3 eggs.
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.

Recipe

• Cook the spinach for 3 minutes in boiling water.
• Remove the water thoroughly from the spinach.
• Crush the spinach in the kitchen machine untill it is a smooth paste.
• Stir the three eggs and add the spinach and the olive oil.
• Add the oo flour to the eggs and spinach and mix thoroughly.
• Knead the dough firmly for at least 15 minutes.
• Put the dough in a bowl with a wet towel covering it.
• Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes (preferably longer).

Bolognese sauce
Ingredients

• 400g minced beef.
• 300g carrot.
• 300g white onion.
• 300g celery.
• 50g tomato puree.
• 400g peeled tomatoes (not crushed, quality is better).
• 2l vegetable bouillon.
• Paprika powder.
• Cinnamon.
• Oregano.
• Black papper.
• Salt.
• Extra virgin olive oil.

Recipe

• Cut the carrots, white onions and celery into small bits. This is preferably too small than to big!
• Put some olive oil in a big frying pan and fry the minced meat untill all the water is evaporated and there is only minced meat and olive oil left.
• Add the arrots, white onions and celery to the pan. Fry the vegetables for approximately 3 minutes.
• Add the tomate puree to the bottom of the pan and fry for a minute to temper the acidity.
• Add the peeled tomatoes and crush them in the pan.
• Add 500ml bouillon to the pan.
• Wait untill moest of the bouillon is evaporated and then add some more bouillon. Repeat this procedure for at least one hour (preferably even 3 hours).
• When you feel the sauce is done, let the bouillon evaporate until the sauce has the viscosity you want.
• Add paprika powder, oregano, black papper and salt according to taste. Add only a little bit of cinnamon, this can really destroy the taste when added to much.

Tortellini
Ingredients

• Basil.
• Parmesan cheese.
• Extra virgin olive oil.
• Burrata.

Recipe

• Roll out the dough as thin as possible, without creating holes. One can do this either by hand or with the help of a machine (makes life a lot easier).
• Cut squares of around 3 times 3 centimer. A bit smaller or bigger is also possible.
• Make sure you put some flour on the dough so it will not stick together when you are done.
• Puth some water on one of the sides of the all the squares, and add some bolognese sauce in the middle.
• Fold the suares into triangles and attach the side to eachother, while also pushing out all the excess air. Use a fork to attach the sides firmly.
• Fold the triangle around your finger and attach the two corners with some water. This will result in a crown-like shape.

• Make a big bowl of cooking water with salt. Add the salt once the water starts bowling.
• Add the tortellini to the water set a timer for 3 minutes.
• After the 3 minutes we get the tortellini from the water and put them in a pan together with some hot bolognese sauce.
• Cover the tortellini all round with bolognese sauce.
• Put the tortellini on a plate, together with some parmesan cheese and basil. Put some drops of extra virgin olive oil over the plate.
• Serve the dish together with the burrata.