Prawns/Shrimp stuffed Tortellini

I don't have the recipe, I need one!

Background: I've been to a nice restaurant last Thursday and that dish is on my mind since (it doesn't happen often but it's there). The plate was a simple Prawns stuffed tortellini with a spinach oil. It was simple and nice. The tortellini was melting in your mouth...

Now that I ate it, I want more. I just spent an hour of trying to find a recipe on how to make this.

I make pasta every week, that bit is not a problem. I mostly make everything from scratch so that's all right.

Where I'm puzzled is how to make the stuffing. I would probably chop the prawns or put them in the blender at one point but the recipes on the web seems to go with either raw, 1/2 cooked, completely cooked or cooked for 15 minutes (rubber)...

I can't seem to find something consistent in the recipes. I would never cook a prawn for 15 minutes, that won't be good. If I leave it raw, I'm unsure if the middle of the tortellini will be cooked afterward.

Any experience on making this? How do you do it?

I'm just bookmarking your thread Luc, this is a recipe I'd be very interested in.

Making the Tortellini fresh, do not pre-cook the Prawns. They are easily overcooked in three minutes.

I do not have a recipe, but I would think that starting with raw shrimp would be fine. I make wonton soup and start with raw pork in the wontons and it is no problem.

Have you called the restaurant and asked them Luc? I know that lots of chefs are willing to share.
I would agree that the prawns should go into the pasta raw and will cook more than adequately in a few minutes, but otherwise you have me intrigued too. What other flavours were involved? I would be tempted to go with a little chilli, or perhaps ginger and garlic........
Would love to hear more!

Sounds like I will need to make a small scale experiment.

What was in the dish?

Spinach pasta (spinach was mixed with the dough, dough was green)
Filling: Prawns, ricotta and chives
Sauce: Spinach, garlic, oil and chilli (well, that's all I could identify). The Spinach and garlic were food processed with the oil as I didn't have any chunks anywhere. The chef used a fresh chilli (Bird's eye chilli I think).

It was light, simple and so good.

I would probably try to make a few tortellini and see how I go. I don't want to overcook the prawn as overcooked prawn taste like rubber. I don't want it undercooked either as fresh pasta cooks in a flash.

Busy as they are, I'm unsure if the chef will take 2 minutes...

All right, I assume if I don't make them too tick, they should be fine.

Luc, sounds like a nice dish.. Whereabouts did you have this????

pauls51 said:

Luc, sounds like a nice dish.. Whereabouts did you have this????

Click to expand...

http://www.grossiflorentino.com/

One of the best restaurant I've been in my life! Big bill at the end but well worth it!

For the others, I will probably do my tortellini on Saturday and post the results (probably with a few pictures, I need to torture a few souls...)...

By Guy Grossi (the same chef than the above link).

Quick recipe to make tortellini...

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/oven/#/masterclass/DCB5473A/masterclass-guy-grossi

What a fantastic menu and a beautiful restaurant. I would love to have a chance at the 8-course tasting menu with selected wines!!!!

Luc said:

http://www.grossiflorentino.com/

One of the best restaurant I've been in my life! Big bill at the end but well worth it!

For the others, I will probably do my tortellini on Saturday and post the results (probably with a few pictures, I need to torture a few souls...)...

By Guy Grossi (the same chef than the above link).

Quick recipe to make tortellini...

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/oven/#/masterclass/DCB5473A/masterclass-guy-grossi

Click to expand...

That looks great Luc- if I recall correctly, Florentino's has been there for a long time and I have eaten there a couple of times in the 1980s and early 1990s. There was always trouble in the main dining room with gentlemen trying to remove their jackets during lunch

djh said:

That looks great Luc- if I recall correctly, Florentino's has been there for a long time and I have eaten there a couple of times in the 1980s and early 1990s. There was always trouble in the main dining room with gentlemen trying to remove their jackets during lunch

Click to expand...

Yes, you are close to your neighbour a bit in there. However, the service, the food, the experience, I didn't notice the table next to us and I was sitting in the door...

However, when I got in, the hostess tryed to take my work bag and I decided to keep it under the table... They were taking the jackets if you had one!

I think it used to be just the restaurant and now they expended to a restaurant and Grill. It's a bit like 2 in 1 (you can see it on the menu). The restaurant is usually used for functions.

I have to say, for everything we ate, it was a lot of money but well worth it!

I'm going back next year!

Luc said:

Yes, you are close to your neighbour a bit in there. However, the service, the food, the experience, I didn't notice the table next to us and I was sitting in the door...

However, when I got in, the hostess tryed to take my work bag and I decided to keep it under the table... They were taking the jackets if you had one!

I think it used to be just the restaurant and now they expended to a restaurant and Grill. It's a bit like 2 in 1 (you can see it on the menu). The restaurant is usually used for functions.

I have to say, for everything we ate, it was a lot of money but well worth it!

I'm going back next year!

Click to expand...

Cool! Thanks for the note- next time that I make it to Melbourne we might head to the bar to discuss football and straights!

Sure!

i think alton brown did a few pasta episodes of good eats, one of them included basic ravioli and tortellini making, as for the filling, sliced shrimp in a cream sauce, maybe tampering some cheese in to it for a stronger flavor, and maybe a bit of chopped green onion for sweetness,
Btw : tampering means slowly adding it over low heat so it mixes without crudding,

heres the recepie for the basic pasta mix
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/fresh-pasta-recipe/index.html
or heres a specific ravioli one, you can use the same for tortellini by changing the fold patern,
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/ravioli-dough-recipe/index.html

Aevum said:

i think alton brown did a few pasta episodes of good eats, one of them included basic ravioli and tortellini making, as for the filling, sliced shrimp in a cream sauce, maybe tampering some cheese in to it for a stronger flavor, and maybe a bit of chopped green onion for sweetness,
Btw : tampering means slowly adding it over low heat so it mixes without crudding,

heres the recepie for the basic pasta mix
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/fresh-pasta-recipe/index.html
or heres a specific ravioli one, you can use the same for tortellini by changing the fold patern,
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/ravioli-dough-recipe/index.html

Click to expand...

My basic pasta recipe is closer to Mario Batali than Tyler Florence...

I usually do:

• ~1 cup of flour tipo 00
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt

2 more days and I will start this...

I usually opt for 1 egg to every 100g of flour. Use the freshest eggs you can get your hands on. If you have a friend with chickens, now's the time to call in a favour.

the question is, will you boil them ? cook them in a sause, pan fry them ?

Aevum said:

the question is, will you boil them ? cook them in a sause, pan fry them ?

Click to expand...

Both. I will poach them in water and then cook them for a minute max in the pan to it mixes with everything. I might test one before I take them to the pan. If they are cooked, no need, I will just mix them in the pan without the stovetop!

All right, keep in mind, I'm no chef, this is one of my hobbies...

First picture is the pasta uncooked and second is how it looked like in the plate.

I did a spinach dough with a Prawn/Ricotta/chives filling...

Yes, I will share how I did it. I was going to do some tortellini, I did one and realized it wouldn't work as planed so I didn't close my circles!

The Dough
-2 eggs
-1 fistfull spinach
-~2 cups of flour
-Pinch of salt

I mixed the 2 eggs, salt and spinach in a blender.

I then transfer into a container and added flour little by little. You need to be careful with dough, if you play with it too much, it will be tough.

Mixed the dough and let it rest for a bit. I left the dough in the freezer.

The filling
-Around 300 grams of Prawns (no head, no shell, deveined and uncooked)
-150 grams of Ricotta
-Maybe 1/4 of a glass of wine (enough to get the blender going - try to add the least amount of wine as possible, I used white wine).
-1 fistfull of chives (use scissors to chop it first otherwise the blender will jam)

I blended the whole thing adding a tiny quantity of wine at the time.

Assembly
I used a round crystal glass as the rim is thin.

With the pasta machine using the thinnest setting, I passed the dough through. (well, biggest setting first, reduced and passed it twice while reducing the setting 2 times)

I cut the dough with a glass. Don't play too much with the left overs and don't flour them too much either. The more you play with them, the harder they will be! I did throw out some left over dough at the end... Too tough...

After I was done, I added around 1/2 tablespoon of the prawn mixture on the circle, fold it and seal it by pressing it.

Cooking
I used a wok with a bit of olive oil and cooked a bird's eye chili with 2 pieces of chopped garlic.

I boiled some salty water. I cooked the pasta in batches (maybe 6-8 at the time). When cooked, I was adding them to the wok. I cooked the garlic and chili already and turned it to low.

Final scene
Once everything in, I added a bit of olive oil, mixed the lot, plate it and voilà!

Fridge to plate, it took me 60 minutes.

My other half said it was awesome times 10.

I thought it was good!

A bit of Parmesan on top with a nice glass of white wine and here I am!

That looks fantastic Luc- and at least as enjoyable as Florentino's I'm sure! Thanks for the update.