Tortellini Dough

Preamble
For 1kg of filling

Ingredients
8 whole eggs
1 kilo of flour
no salt in dough (but you must put in the water when you cook)
15 ml of extra virgin olive oil
40 ml approx of water

Method

the dough should be soft, for the simple reason, they won't stick when you put the tortellini together if its dry and very hard. And then the tortellini open out when they go in the water

When the dough is mixed. Take off a piece, about 1/4 and pound a bit and then put through the pasta machine.

Work with a bit of flour, roll out a bit, dust with flour, re-fold, and then put through machine. Take out and dust with a bit more flour and then re-fold. Keep working to strengthen the mix. Do this about 6 times

Take a four pronged dough cutter which is on a spring and expands out. Three centimetre square. Roll along the pastry which has been rolled very fine.

Make the squares and lift off the bench and flip on the hand and put a large pinch of filling and then fold over like envelope and seal and then twist and sit on grease proof paper on top of a tray or piece of box and then snap freeze.

They stick together and no way will not seal. You have to use the part against the stainless steel or marble because they are better than wood for this. Then you turn over and put a tiny bit in middle and press into triangle. a lot of recipes say you have to seal with white of egg but this way saves a lot of time - you just twist and press and its done.

Put the filling on cold side , the one that's been on the marble. Because the filling will stick there on the colder side.. Don't put it on the top which is warmer - if you put on the top they will never stick together. Because as soon as the dough gets a little bit of air, they won't stick.

Cooking

With tortellini it is best to cook and eat them straight away. If you blanch and leave in the cool room the flavours go. You can use straight away - you can use all day. You can leave out of fridge maybe 2 days (not in summer)

The tortellini can be cooked in water but all the flavour and goodness will go out into the water and be lost. They should be cooked in the chicken broth and then moved from that chicken broth to the fresh clear broth before service. Then the flavour is perfect.

So cook for a couple of minutes in some chicken broth and then from there you put in the clear broth. Because when you cook the pasta, the broth gets murky and scummy from the oil and flour. Then you put the cooked tortellini into the clear broth to serve because 'Tortellini in brodo' must be very clear broth.

The broth that you have used for cooking can be kept (a short time) and used for making risotto or a brasato of chicken or veal. It cannot be kept indefinitely beause the flour left from the tortellini gives acididty to the broth.