Culurgiones

Potato and mint parcels closed with a braided seam across the top.

Not vegetarian — contains pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

Pasta

• 400 g fine semolina flour
• 200 ml warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 700 g floury potatoes
• 150 g pecorino sardo, grated
• a large handful of mint leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

To dress

• 400 g passata
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 40 g pecorino, to serve

Method

1. Boil the potatoes whole in their skins, peel them hot and rice them. Let them steam dry 10 minutes.
2. Work in the pecorino, mint, garlic, oil and salt while still warm so the cheese softens into it. Chill 1 hour.
3. Mix the semolina, water and salt into a firm dough, knead 10 minutes and rest 30.
4. Roll thin and cut 8 cm discs. Put a walnut of filling in the middle of each.
5. NOW THE PLEAT, which is what makes this a culurgione and not a ravioli. Hold the disc in your palm, pinch the pasta together at the near edge, then fold alternate sides over the filling one after the other with thumb and forefinger, working away from you. It closes into a braided seam like an ear of wheat.
6. It takes several goes to learn and the first dozen will be untidy. A sealed parcel is more important than a neat one.
7. Warm the passata with the oil and a little salt for 10 minutes.
8. Boil the culurgiones 5 minutes, lift them out with a slotted spoon, and turn them gently through the sauce. Serve with pecorino grated over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes