Culurgiones

By cookism

Culurgiones are traditional ravioli that hail from the island of Sardinia, Italy. Their name means “little bundles”, and indeed, they are little stuffed dough pouches of immense flavor sealed with craft and patience. While this hearty pasta dish is relatively easy to make, it will certainly require practice before one stitches up the culurgiones like a skilled nonna. So grab a chair, loosen those fingers and be patient, for the end product of cheesy, minty dough parcels stuffed generously with creamy mashed potato is worthwhile and enough to make you go “Mama mia!”.

Ingredients

• For pasta:
• 250 g of Tipo 00 Flour
• 250 g of Semolina
• 1 tsp of Salt
• 3 tbsp of Olive Oil
• Warm water as needed (around 200ml)
• For filling:
• 5 Medium Potatoes (around 750g)
• 130 g of Pecorino Cheese (grated)
• 70 g of Ricotta
• 6 to 8 Sprigs of Mint (finely chopped)
• 4 tbsp of Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves of Garlic (finely minced)
• For Sauce:
• 3 Cloves of Minced Garlic
• 800 g to 1kg of canned peeled tomatoes (diced)
• Salt & Black Pepper (to taste)
• Brown Sugar (to taste)
• A Splash of Dry White Wine
• A Handful of Basil
• Olive Oil

Details

Servings 80
Adapted from cookism.tumblr.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Combine 00 flour, semolina and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Form a well in the center and add in olive oil. Gradually stir some flour into the olive oil. Bit by bit, add in warm water to form a dough.
2. Transfer the dough to a clean work surface. Using the press-fold-turn action, knead the dough till elastic and smooth. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and leave it for at least 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, boil potatoes in salt water till soft. Allow the potatoes to cool a bit before peeling the skin. Mash the potatoes by running them through the potato ricer.
4. Add mashed potatoes, pecorino cheese, ricotta, finely minced garlic, chopped fresh mint and olive oil into a large mixing bowl. Mix well!
5. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Flatten a piece of dough with your fingers and roll the dough through the pasta machine by starting with the widest setting. Fold the dough into half and run the dough through the machine for a few more times. Subsequently, click a setting down and run the dough through till you reached your desired thickness. Please do not skip a setting in between and always cover the rest of the dough with a plastic wrap to prevent the pasta dough from drying out. I am using an Ampia 150 pasta machine and I typically prefer my dough thickness to be set at 5.
6. Using a 8cm diameter cutter, cut the pasta sheet into disks. Place the filling in the center and roughly neaten them with your fingers. Follow the steps above to achieve the culurgiones shape.
7. To cook the sauce, heat the pan and add some olive oil followed by minced garlic and tomatoes. Season with brown sugar, salt and black pepper. Add a splash of white wine and basil into the pan. Stir occasionally and allow the sauce to reduce to your desired consistency. You can always add some pasta water if the sauce is too thick
8. To cook culurgiones, season water with salt (3 liters of water + 1 tbsp of salt) and add them into a good simmer. Stir occasionally to prevent culurgiones from sticking to the bottom. Culurgiones should be ready when they rise to the surface. Using a slotted spoon, drain and transfer culurgiones onto a warm serving plate. Spoon sauce onto the pasta and top it up with grated pecorino cheese and black pepper. Ready to serve! Enjoy!