Mushroom, spinach and asparagus saccottini
Looking to impress? Theo Randall’s homemade pasta parcels come stuffed with cheesy mushrooms and spinach. Best served in a simple butter sauce.
Ingredients
For the pasta dough
- 350g/12oz 00 flour
- 25g/1oz fine semolina flour, plus 50g/1¾oz for dusting
- 2 free-range eggs, plus 4 free-range egg yolks, beaten together
For the pasta
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 250g/9oz chestnut (cremini) mushrooms, sliced
- 250g/9oz asparagus spears, tough ends removed
- 400g/14oz spinach
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú taleggio, rind removed and finely chopped
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú mascarpone
- 100g/3½oz unsalted butter
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the pasta dough, combine both flours in a large bowl, then add the beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons water. Mix with a fork then, when combined, use your hands to start forming a dough. Once the dough is smooth, wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the olive oil to a hot, small frying pan, then add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes or until they are reduced, dark and slightly sticky. Season with salt and black pepper and leave to cool, then finely chop and set aside.
Cook the asparagus in a pan of boiling salted water for 3 minutes, then remove from the pan with a pair of tongs, keeping the water in the pan, and set aside to cool. Bring the water back to the boil, then tip in the spinach and blanch for 1 minute. Drain into a colander.
When the spinach has cooled, squeeze with a cloth so it’s dry. Finely chop, then place in a bowl. Finely chop the asparagus and transfer to the same bowl. Add the cooked chopped mushrooms, the taleggio and mascarpone, then mix with a wooden spoon so the mixture is well combined. Season and keep to one side.
Divide the pasta dough into four equal pieces. Take one of the pieces and, on a work surface dusted with semolina flour, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until thin enough to go through the rollers on your pasta machine. Place one end in the machine on the widest setting and roll it through the machine. Fold the pasta in half and roll again. Repeat four times for each quarter of pasta. This process makes the pasta more elastic so it will be much more durable and won't break. When you can see the silhouette of your hand behind the pasta, it is thin enough.
On a work surface dusted with semolina flour, cut out a 7cm/2¾in square of pasta from one of the sheets, then use this as a template to cut all the pasta into equal squares. Place the cut-out squares in a single layer, with a damp tea towel on top.
Place a generous teaspoon of the filling mixture in the centre of each pasta square. Using a water sprayer or a wet pastry brush, wet the outside edges of the pasta. Bring two opposite corners together to meet in the middle, then do the same with the other two corners, so it forms a parcel, or purse, with no gaps. Make sure there is no air in the parcel by pressing slowly and carefully on the edges, squeezing out any unwanted air.
Place the filled saccottini on a tray lined with baking paper generously dusted with semolina flour. Place the tray in the fridge and leave for 2 hours – this will dry out the pasta and give the pasta a better bite when you cook it.
Carefully add the saccottini to a pan of boiling salted water and cook for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a warm frying pan. Remove the cooked saccottini with a slotted spoon and place in the frying pan with the butter. Add a ladleful of the pasta cooking water and gently cook for a couple of minutes, moving the pan continually so the starch from the pasta and butter emulsify. Serve in warm pasta bowls with some black pepper.