Spinach tortellini with spinach and cheese filling

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 400 g flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp powder (spinach), optional for nice green pasta
• 400 g leaf spinach, frozen
• 100 g Emmental or mozzarella, Parmesan, feta, …
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 3 minutes

homemade pasta with a delicious vegetarian filling

Thaw the spinach leaves and puree finely. Mix 2 tablespoons of the puree with the eggs, oil, and salt, and knead with the flour and spinach powder to form a firm, smooth, and elastic pasta dough. If the dough is too dry, add a little more spinach puree; if it’s sticky, add a little more flour. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap until ready to use. Puree the remaining spinach with the cheese and season with salt (herb salt), pepper, and nutmeg. The filling should already have a strong flavor. Stir in the breadcrumbs to give the mixture a firm texture. Roll out the prepared dough very thinly (1 mm or thinner) and cut into 5×5 cm squares. Place a small dollop of the spinach and cheese mixture (less than 1/2 teaspoon) in the center of each square, then fold the squares diagonally into triangles. To ensure the edges stick together, you can moisten the edges with your finger and a little water beforehand. Now fold back the blunt corner of the triangle and press the sharp corners together around a finger to form a ring. Water is also a good glue here. Now you have a tortellino. Keep on a floured surface until ready to cook. Boil in heavily salted, boiling water for a few minutes until the pasta rises to the surface. A fresh tomato or creamy sauce goes well with this. Tips: You can of course also make great vegetarian Maultaschen with the dough and filling. To do this, roll out the dough into a rectangular sheet and mentally divide it into thirds crosswise. Spread a thin layer of the filling on the middle third and fold the top third down. Moisten the edges well and fold the bottom third onto the top third. Press the ends firmly and press down firmly with the handle of a wooden spoon at the desired intervals, cutting the Maultaschen apart at the resulting separation. Of course, all kinds of pasta can be made with this dough. However, the pasta remains very soft after cooking. The dough will be firmer with more egg. For pasta that’s cut out with cutters (like ravioli or pelmeni), the spinach puree needs to be very fine so the cutters don’t have to struggle with the spinach fibers.