Carluccio's Recipe: Tortelli con Granciporro

Antonio Carluccio, of eponymous restaurant fame, has released a new cookbook of Italian pasta dishes, soups, main courses, salads and desserts for the first time in twenty years.

Antonio Carluccio pasta recipes

Not surprisingly, the focus of Antonio Carluccio’s Pasta is Italy’s most iconic dish. The chef gives us a step-by-step guide on how to make fresh pasta, offering a masterful blend of traditional (spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino) and unusual (chocolate fettuccine) recipes.

Try this tortelli for a zesty seafood treat.

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Pasta Squares Stuffed with Crab

Sometimes there is confusion in the regions concerning the names and shapes of certain pastas. Tortelli, closely related to tortelloni, are the largest of the family: sometimes they are a flat square parcels, and sometimes they are round with a tummy and a hole in the middle. The regions in contention are Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. Because the filling here is more appropriate to a coastal region, I will attribute the recipe to Romagna, which has a window on the Adriatic.

INGREDIENTS

Serves four (3 tortelli each)
200g fresh egg pasta (see below)
4 small sprigs fresh dill, chopped, to garnish
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the filling
1 large crab, about 1.5kg, freshly boiled
75g mascarpone cheese
1 tsp brandy
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

For the sauce
60g unsalted butter
1g saffron strands or 2 sachets powdered saffron

METHOD

Extract all the meat, white and brown, from the crab, making sure there are no bits of shell left. Mix this with the mascarpone, brandy, dill and some salt and pepper to taste. Keep to one side.

Roll out the pasta dough to 1mm thick, preferably by machine, into 1 or 2 long strips. Place 1 tsp of the filling at intervals in the centre of each strip, wet the edges, and fold over. Press to seal, then cut into 7cm squares with a serrated cutter.

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water for 4–5 minutes or until al dente. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan until foaming, then add the saffron. Divide the tortelli between warmed plates, three per portion. Pour some of the saffron butter over the top, and decorate with freshly chopped dill. Serve hot.

TOASTING SAFFRON:

This is the way to deal with saffron strands – which I always prefer to powder (there is less risk of adulteration). Put the saffron strands in the bowl of a kitchen spoon and toast it over a gas flame, the flame under the bowl. This dries the saffron, which is then easy to grind to a powder.

Recipe extracted from Antonio Carluccio's Pasta
by Antonio Carluccio (Quadrille Publishing, Hardback £20)