TURLE: LIGURIAN POTATO & CHEESE RAVIOLI
with Domenica Cooks
In this class we will a special stuffed pasta from Liguria: Turle (prounounced ‘TOOR-leh). These potato- and cheese-stuffed ravioli belong to a sub-category of Ligurian cuisine known as “Cucina Bianca,” or '“white cooking.” The cuisine is found in the villages tucked in shaded Alpine hills near the border of France, and is notable for its lack of colorful ingredients: potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, leeks, and cheese, for example. The cuisine is delicate in flavor and has, in recent years, become more appreicated.
In addition to the pasta and filling, we will also make a simple butter and parmigiano sauce with which to dress our turle. You’ll find a link to the printable recipe below.
ZOOM LINK FOR CLASS
Please click on the above link to access the class on Zoom at the appointed date and time.
C LASS PREPARATION
Here are a few things you can do to get ready for class:
Refer to the ingredients and equipment lists below to make sure you have everything you need well before class. Links are provided to online sources for less-common ingredients and for ingredients/brands I like to use (of course, feel free to use brands you like). In the case of the toma-style cheese, the links are there to give you an idea of the type of cheese typically used in the recipe, even though it’s not necessarily what you’ll find in your local cheese department. Fontina Val d’Aosta is a good substitution. Exact ingredient amounts and details are in the printable recipes linked below.
Read through the recipes (printable versions linked below) to familiarize yourself with them, and to help make sense of the ingredients and equipment lists.
Have your ingredients at the ready, measured out and prepped before class starts, if possible, so we can get right to the pasta making.
INGREDIENTS
For the Egg Pasta
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (150 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, such as King Arthur
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (150 g) “00” soft-wheat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
Semola rimacinata or semolina flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill) for the work surface (optional)
1 large egg
(1/4 cup (60 ml) dry Italian white wine, such as Vermentino or whatever dry white you happen to have (may substitute water)
For the Potato and Cheese Stuffing:
1 pound (454 g) yellow-fleshed potatoes, such as Yukon Gold
1 1/4 cups (100 g) shredded semi-firm, buttery Toma or tomme-style cheese, such as Toma Piemontese or Tomme des Pyrenees; or a semi-firm Italian cheese such as Fontina Val d’Aosta
3/4 cup (57 g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons (45 ml) heavy or light cream
Several sprigs fresh mint
Several sprigs fresh marjoram
For the Browned Butter Sauce
1 stick (4 ounces/115 g) salted butter
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
EQUIPMENT LIST
Please note that some of this equipment is optional, though it’s recommended that you have a food processor or stand mixer to mix your dough and a pasta machine or pasta rolling attachment for your mixer to roll out your pasta sheets. Rolling by hand is possible but you need a very long rolling pin and it takes a certain amount of skill to master the proper hand-rolling technique to achieve a very thin sheet (a subject for another class, perhaps!).
Pasta machine: for rolling the pasta dough into sheets
Dough/bench scraper: this helps in the mixing of dough and sweeping away excess flour
Pasta/pastry cutter, to cut out your ravioli. You can find a variety of cutters online; here’s one I like from Fantes Kitchen Shop's website; and another (fancier) one from q.b. Cucina. Or you can use a fluted cookie/biscuit cutter, such as this one.
Kitchen scale: not necessary but very helpful for accurately measuring flour and other ingredients.
Large, rimmed baking sheets (or a table cloth-covered surface) to hold your shaped turle
Skillet or saucepan for making the browned butter sauce