Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Tortellini with Nutty Herb Sauce

Happy New Year! With the holidays finally over, I'm picking up where I left off - trying new, delicious recipes and using this blog as my recipe book. I inherited a pile of cookbooks from my husband's grandma and I can't wait to dive into them! Every cookbook is like a treasure chest - handing recipes down and around has been the secret language of families for aeons and I'm honored to be taken into their confidence.

My mom got me a beautiful pizza stone for Christmas, along with a book of neat pizza recipes. Not your standard tomato-and-cheese fare, so I'm really looking forward to trying those out too.

But for now, a new favorite.

Mats:
1 lb cheese tortellini or ravioli
3 Tbsp butter
100g walnuts (about 3.5 oz)
100g pine nuts (about 3.5 oz)
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/4c ricotta cheese
3 Tbsp cream
10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Set aside
Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter is all melted and begins to foam, add the nuts.
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. The nuts will turn golden brown, and the butter will be a rich dark brown as well.
Remove the nuts from heat and add the thyme, parsley and about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the cream. Stir so the cheese is all gloopy.
Dish the tortellini into serving bowls and top with the nut-butter. Put a large dollp of the ricotta/cream mixture on top. Top with cherry tomato halves and enjoy.

NB: Since my husband can't eat whole nuts, after the butter and nuts were finished cooking I put them, the thyme and parsley into the food processor and ground it into a fine paste-like concoction. It came out really well.

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