Semolina

Greek Yogurt Semolina Tortellini

April 23, 2010
4.3
7 Ratings
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

I recently received a used hand-crank pasta machine. I spent an entire weekend rolling everything I could get my hands on through that thing. I was obessed with making an eggless dough. At some point, once I'd mastered that, I decided I would make tortellini. That was before I raided the refrigerator to find I had no ricotta, no fresh meat—no anything to fill a tortellini with. But I eyeballed the greek yogurt and thought, why not? And why not, indeed? This is the best tortellini I've ever made. —cottageindustrialist

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Basic Semolina Dough
  • 1 cup durum semolina flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 - 1/2 cups water
  • Greek Yogurt Tortellini
  • 1/2 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
  • 2 egg yolks
  • black pepper
Directions
  1. Basic Semolina Dough
  2. Pour the semolina flour onto a work surface, and add the salt, stirring a bit with your fingers to combine.
  3. Make a well in the center of the flour.
  4. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water into the well, and begin incorporating the flour into the water. Continue adding water until you've incorporated almost all of the flour. Knead any remaining flour in, and continue kneading for about 5 minutes, until supple and smooth. Set aside to rest (wrapped in plastic or in a plastic bag) for at least 20 minutes (and up to 1 day).
  5. Roll out using a pasta machine, allowing rolled-out pasta to rest on a sheet tray (lightly dusted with semolina), covered under a towel. Cut into desired shape. Plain, unfilled pasta cooks in well-salted boiling water in 60-90 seconds.
  1. Greek Yogurt Tortellini
  2. Combine the yogurt, pecorino, egg yolks, and pepper. Stir vigorously.
  3. Using a circle cutter, cut 1-3/4" or larger rounds from your pasta dough, setting aside any scraps under a damp cloth (these can be run through your pasta machine again).
  4. Put a very small dollop of filling in the center of each round. Moisten the edges of the pasta, and fold it in half, crimping the edges closed with your fingers. Make a dimple in the flat edge of the half-round you just created, and pull the two corners around to meet each other, crimping them together.
  5. Place completed tortellinis on a sheet tray dusted with semolina (to prevent sticking). At this point, tortellini can be flash frozen or cooked right away. 90 seconds in rapidly boiling water is plenty, unless they're frozen, in which case 2 minutes should be about right.
  6. Serve with a little butter and black pepper. Or if you're feeling really decadent, with a sprinkling of truffle salt. You could also serve these in broth (the traditional Italian preparation) or cold on toothpicks (the traditional Donna Reed preparation).

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1 Review

Synky March 25, 2012
Just made these tonight! They turned out really great! Everyone loved them so much we ran out. I didn't have a pasta machine, so as I kept rolling out the remaining dough, it kept getting more and more crumbly. I think in the future, I would just use the fresh dough that hasn't been rolled out. Also, I doubled the recipe, ending up with way too much filling. Perhaps it was the fact that I was making slightly over 2" circles, because I was definitely making sure they were thinly rolled out. Anyway, will make more tomorrow with maybe some spinach or pesto added to the filling. Great recipe again, very easy, and VERY tasty. Toddler and baby approved.