Rotoli Di Pasta or Pasta Rolls

Sherri at the Beach's Note:

Many years ago my sister and I visited Italy and spent some time with the family of a foreign exchange student Alberto who lived with my family for a year. His mother would go every day to the market to purchase fresh items and one day she made this dish for us. You must make the pasta from scratch as it isn't available commercially. Basically make a big sheet, cover it spinach and cheese, roll it up, boil, slice and serve. Beautiful to look at.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 2 hrs
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 8.0 slices

• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 5 cups spinach, fresh
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, fresh grated
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• cheesecloth
• 2 cups marinara sauce

Directions:

1. Saute the spinach until wilted. Cool then chop. Mix with the cheeses and nutmeg.
2. Pour the flour on the counter and make a well. Mix the eggs in a bowl to break the yolks then pour into flour well. Pulling from the sides of flour, keep incorporating flour into the eggs until all flour is used up. Sprinkle with flour and knead dough until smooth and not sticky.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle until it is roughly 1/8 inch thick of less. This takes some elbow grease.
4. Spread the spinach mixture evenly across the surface, leaving a one inch border on one side. Roll the pasta up from the side opposite the border to form a roll. Wrap with doubled cheesecloth and secure both ends and middle with string. Boil in salty like the sea water for 25 minutes.
5. Remove from pan and allow to rest, wrapped, 20 minutes. Remove cheesecloth and slice into one inch pinwheels.
6. To serve, ladle some sauce on a plate and serve to 'wheel's per person.
7. Notes: I have made this with Swiss Chard which is also delicious. I serve this as a side dish to chicken parmesan and green salad. Also good with fresh sage added to the cheese mixture.
8. Goes best with a light red dinner wine or a rose.

Reviews

[Chef #938871]

it works! it's so beautiful and delicious. makes a special occasion even better from prep to plate!

[Lando]

This was excellent and so much fun to make. I made it for a birthday dinner (for some reason I always make things I've never made before for dinner parties) and it was a hit, in spite of the fact that I hadn't rolled out the pasta enough. The one correction I would make to the recipe is for the pasta - it should be 3 eggs to 2 cups flour, adding 1/2 tsp at a time of water until you get the desired consistency. As suggested, I served it with Chicken Parmesan and a Marinara Sauce. Beautiful and delicious.