Recipe: Spicy tortellini with fish butter sauce

The recipes in Karin Gaasterland’s new cookbook Cuisine Carine are simple but each and every one is incredibly delicious. This spicy tortellini with homemade pasta dough, filled with aubergine in a fish butter sauce, is one such recipe—give it a try!

Karin: “At Caffè Toscanini, I learned to fold this typical type of pasta from Bologna during Christmas. At the time, I lived in the heart of Amsterdam’s Chinatown, with the fantastic fishmonger Tel just around the corner. So that Christmas, this tortellini was on our menu, homemade, of course.”

How to make the pasta dough

• Mix the flour and 00 flour and pile them into a mound on a cool work surface.
• Make a well in the flour, add the eggs, salt and olive oil, and knead by hand, gradually incorporating more flour into the egg until everything is mixed.
• Keep kneading until you have a smooth ball of dough.
• Wrap in cling film and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Keeps for a maximum of 2 days.

How to make the tortellini

• For the filling, fry the aubergine in some sunflower oil with the garlic, chili pepper, ginger, lemongrass and coriander seeds until golden brown. Add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, lime juice and zest, and salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Toss and take care not to let it burn. Add the coriander and walnuts and chop everything into a coarse filling.
• Dust the work surface with semolina and roll out the pasta dough with a rolling pin, wine bottle or pasta machine until approximately 2 millimeters thick. Cut into 4-by-4-centimeter squares. Divide the filling over the squares, one teaspoon per piece, slightly off-center.
• Brush the edges with your finger or a brush dipped in water. Fold the squares into triangles. Carefully press out the air around the filling and press the edges together with a fork. Fold the points of the long side of the triangle around your index finger toward each other, creating a small hat. Dust the tortellini with semolina and store covered in a dish.
• Heat the fish stock and season with cognac, salt and pepper. Whisk in the butter cubes one by one (mounting).
• Bring plenty of salted water to a boil and cook the tortellini for 5 minutes until done. Divide among four deep plates and let them swim in the butter sauce.

Title: Cuisine Carine
Author: Karin Gaasterland
Price: €33,99
Publisher: Carrera Culinair

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