Mushroom Tortellini with Burnt Butter, Sage and Proscuitto Sauce.

Pasta

400g all purpose flour

4 eggs

pinch of salt

Extra flour for dusting

Stuffing

300g mixed mushrooms

1 medium brown onion

Some butter + olive oil

Parsley and Thyme

Salt and Pepper

Splash of wine

250g Ricotta

Handful of Parmesan

Sauce

75g Butter

70g Proscuitto

Extra Mushrooms

Small Bunch of Sage

Splash White Wine

1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice

Start by making the pasta. Process the flour, lightly beaten eggs and pinch of salt until the pasta forms into large crumbs, similar to something like an apple crumble in texture. Tip out onto a lightly floured, dry surface and press together until it forms a cohesive ball. Cover with glad wrap and set aside in a warm place for an hour or so to let it bind.

While that is happening, prepare the stuffing. Chop your mushrooms (we only had regular button mushrooms on hand, so used those, plus a packet of dried porcini reconstituted in hot water) finely. Then get some cloth (we used muslin, or cheesecloth, but a clean teatowel would do) and place a handful of mushrooms in the centre at a time and twist to remove as much liquid as possible. Repeat this until you have done this to all of the mushrooms.

Chop the onion finely and put in frypan with olive oil and butter over medium heat, once onions are soft, add mushrooms and keep lightly frying until they have expressed and then reabsorbed all their liquid, splash a little wine in, toss over parmesan/thyme and let wine reabsorb. Set aside to cool. Once this is cool, mix with Ricotta and Parmesan and taste for seasoning. Set aside while rolling out the pasta.

Get out pasta machine and roll out pasta onto a dry, floured surface to the thinnest setting, one sheet at a time.

Once a sheet has been completed, lay out on the bench and cut into squares, about 5x5cm. Using two teaspoons, place a small amount on mushroom stuffing on the middle of each square, when you have done the lot, brush two edges with water and fold over to form a triangle, then pick up the triangle, long edge facing you, press into the middle and bring the two edges of the pasta together to make a boat shape, you may also need to slightly wet the tips to stick them together. Repeat until you are all out of pasta and stuffing. If you have leftover pasta, cut into strips for parpadelle or keep as is for lasagne sheets.

Get a large pot of salted water onto the boil. In a separate frypan (I actually prefer a wok for this), heat the butter on a medium heat and add the proscuitto, mushrooms and sage. Add the pasta into the boiling water and keep watching the butter sauce, just when it starts to brown and smell nutty, add a splash of white wine and a splash of lemon juice. The pasta should be just about ready now, so transfer from the water to the wok and toss to combine, throw a handful of Parmesan over the top and toss some more. Plate, top with a little more Parmesan and eat!

Serves about 4 hungry people.