Homemade Goat Cheese Tortellini with a Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce

Some people read a book or go shopping or watch TV to relax, I make pasta.  I also make my own cheese to go in said pasta, but I'm nuts.  If you're not nuts like me, you can use a store bought creamy goat cheese.  

Homemade Goat Cheese Tortellini with a Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce

adapted from here

Serves 4

For the Cheese: (if making)

1 litre goats milk

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

For the Tortellini:

350g potatoes (I used 3 medium Dutch Creams)

A god pinch of sea salt

150g baker's flour

For the Sauce:

2 tablespoon olive oil

30g unsalted butter

4 large high quality tomatoes, peeled, desseded and cut into small dice

3 cloves garlic, minced

Sea salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

To Serve:

Finely grated Parmesan

Handful small basil leaves

Olive oil

Make the Cheese:

Put the goat milk and salt into a non-reactive saucepan and heat until it reaches 85°C.  Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, stir to combine and set aside for 5 minutes until curdled.

Line a sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth and strain the milk.  Discard to whey.  Put the curds into the refrigerator and  leave them to continue to drain until thick (an hour or so), and chilled.

Once chilled, mash with a fork until creamy and spoon it into a piping bag.  Set aside.

Make the Tortellini:

Put the potatoes into a pan of salted water.  Bring to the boil and cook for about 20 minutes until tender.  Drain and when cool enough to handle, peel and push them through a ricer into a bowl.  Add the salt and flour.  Mix with your hands until it becomes a dough, adding a little more flour if it's too sticky.  It's best to work with the dough while it is still warm.

Divide the dough in half and pop one half back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap to keep it warm and to stop it from drying out.  Take the other had and roll it using a pasta machine.  Put it through the first (widest) setting a few times (dusting with a little flour and folding into thirds between each roll).  Once it's smooth and elastic, you can start to roll it to make it thinner. Put it through the next setting down (thinner) and so on until you get to the third last setting.  It will be a little thicker than egg pasta.  

Lay the pasta sheet on a floured board and trim the edges.  Cut the sheet in half lengthwise and then into small squares.  I made mine 6cm x 6cm as I find that size easy to work with, but you can make them the size you want, as long as they are square.

Pipe a blob of cheese into the top left-hand corner of each square, fold the bottom right-hand corner over to cover the cheese and press the edges together to create a triangle.  Pick the triangle up and with the points facing up, fold the bottom under (the point will still be facing up).  Take the two long ends at the bottom and wrap them around your index finger and press the ends together to seal.  I'm hoping the photos above help to demonstrate the folding technique (if not, youtube lol).

Place the tortellini on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.  Drop the tortellini into the boiling water and cook until they rise to the surface.  This will only take a matter of minutes.  Scoop them out using a slotted spoon and gently add them to the pan of melted butter, oil and garlic (Below*). Reserve some of the pasta cooking water.

Make the Sauce:

*Put the butter, oil and garlic into a large frying pan and heat on medium-low. Once the butter has melted and you start to smell the garlic, add the cooked tortellini. Coat the pasta in the flavoured oil, then add the diced tomatoes.  Cook for a further 1 or 2 minutes.  You don't to cook the freshness out of the tomatoes, you just want to warm them.  Season to taste with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper.  Add a spoonful of the reserved pasta cooking water to emulsify the sauce.

To Serve:

Remove from the heat, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil.