Pansotti Pasta is a hearty dish that’s perfect for cold weather. It’s best served with a light sauce such as mushroom, cream, or tomato sauce.

Pansotti pasta is made from pasta dough stuffed with a mixture of cheese and ricotta. The dough is rolled out into thin sheets and then cut into small squares or rectangles. The filling is placed in the center of each square before the square is folded over into a triangle shape and sealed with egg wash to make sure it stays together during cooking.

The name “pansotti” comes from the Italian words for “stuffed” and “little,” which gives you some idea of how this dish came about: it started with small pieces of pasta that were stuffed with cheese and ricotta, then folded over like ravioli before being cooked in boiling water. Today people often use other types of cheeses besides ricotta—like mozzarella or parmesan—and they also sometimes add other ingredients to their pansotti such as spinach, mushrooms or ground beef or pork.

If you love pasta but want something filling enough to stick to your ribs (or even stand up on its own), then pansotti should be on your dinner table tonight!

Ingredients:

Produce

• 100 g Chard
• 1 handful Chervil
• 1/2 Garlic clove
• 1 Lemon
• 1 handful Parsley
• 200 g Spinach

Refrigerated

• 4 Eggs

Condiments

• 1 Lemon juice

Baking & Spices

• 400 g 00 flour
• 1 Nutmeg
• 1 Pepper
• 2 Salt

Oils & Vinegars

• 100 ml Olive oil

Nuts & Seeds

• 50 g Walnuts, toasted

Bread & Baked Goods

• 1/2 slice White bread

Dairy

• 20 g Grana padano
• 50 ml Milk
• 10 g Parmesan, grated
• 100 g Ricotta

Preparing the Pansotti Pasta

1. Make the pasta dough

2. Once the mixture has become a dough, tip out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 1 hour

3. Blanch the chard for 3 minutes in salted boiling water. Plunge into iced water to chill and retain its bright green colour, then drain and squeeze out as much water as possible. Roughly chop and place in a bowl

4. Wilt the spinach in a hot dry pan, then squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Roughly chop and add to the bowl with the chard

5. Stir in the ricotta. Add the chopped herbs (reserving a little parsley for garnish), Parmesan and lemon zest and mix thoroughly

6. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, lemon juice and freshly grated nutmeg. Taste and adjust accordingly

7. Next make your walnut sauce! Soak bread in milk until soft; add it to a blender with all other ingredients (except butter which goes on top). Blend until smooth but with some texture—it’s fine if it’s still coarse!

9. Roll the pasta dough through your pasta machine until you have sheets around 1–1.5mm thick

10. Working with a quarter of the dough at a time, lay out on a surface dusted with semolina flour and place teaspoonfuls of filling along the dough, then carefully lay another sheet of pasta over the top

11. Carefully press down around the filling to seal the pansotti and remove any air bubbles. Use a fluted pasta wheel (or knife if you don’t have one) to cut the pansotti into triangular shapes

12. Place the pansotti on a tray dusted with semolina flour whilst you work in batches to make the rest

13. Cook your pasta in heavily salted boiling water for 3–5 minutes, depending on how al dente you like your pasta

14. Gently heat your walnut sauce in a large pan, loosening it with a few spoonfuls of pasta water as needed so that it’s not too thick or thin for coating your pansotti evenly when tossed later on with them after draining them from their boiling water bath before adding them into that pan full of sauce instead!

15. Serve warm with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of chopped parsley

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