Pumpkin Tortelli Recipe

Emily Rodney: From Fashion Avenue to SoHo boutiques, New York City knows designer shopping and when I’m in the mood for oak cuisine, I know just the place.

Hi! Emily Rodney. I’m here at Armani Ristorante, set atop the Armani Fifth Avenue flagship store in Midtown Manhattan. Here, fashionable waiters and designers decor meets innovative Italian cuisine. Let’s go behind the burner and meet a chef with delicious style.

I’m here with executive Chef Roberto Deiaco. Chef, what are we making today?

Roberto Deiaco: Today, we’re going to make some Tortelli with pumpkin, chestnuts, amaretti cookies and parmigiano.

Emily Rodney: Okay. Let’s get started.

Roberto Deiaco: First, we need one pound of pizza flour, five ounces of corn flour and 15 egg yolks.

Emily Rodney: Oh wow! 15 egg yolks.

Roberto Deiaco: It’s egg pasta.

Emily Rodney: What is the consistency you’re looking for at the end product?

Roberto Deiaco: It must be not too hard. Otherwise, you won’t be able to form sheets out of it.

Emily Rodney: That’s a nice technique you’re doing. You’re kind of turning it as you incorporate it.

Roberto Deiaco: Yes. You like to try too?

Emily Rodney: Yeah! Do want me to try? Okay, let’s see. You make it look so easy.

Roberto Deiaco: It is actually easy.

Emily Rodney: But not for me.

Roberto Deiaco: Knead it nicely. You need to press stronger. You need to knead it about 10 minutes until it’s nice and smooth.

Emily Rodney: I think you can take over.

Roberto Deiaco: As you can see, it became nice solid dough. So now, my dough is ready. I’m going to place it in the refrigerator and let it rest for about 10 minutes. But now, we’re going to roll out some sheets, dust with some flour.

Emily Rodney: Chef, do you usually flour your rolling pin or just the board?

Roberto Deiaco: No. You have to flour the board and the dough itself.

Emily Rodney: You’re rolling from the center just so you’re going to have an even --

Roberto Deiaco: Yes. This would be nice and even.

Emily Rodney: What are you trying to get here, a certain shape or size?

Roberto Deiaco: It needs to be a thin shape. Basically, a raviolo is made out of two sheets, so it needs to be nice and thin. So, you cut some round.

Emily Rodney: You want me to help?

Roberto Deiaco: Yes. You can cut them off.

Emily Rodney: Okay. And trying to use all the space that you can?

Roberto Deiaco: Yes. Try to get out at least 10 pieces.

Emily Rodney: Now that we have the shape --

Roberto Deiaco: So basically, you can use the entire dough.

Emily Rodney: Keep on reusing it?

Roberto Deiaco: Keep on reusing it. We get to it rather than just flatting down and cut more sheets out of it.

Emily Rodney: Great! So now, the filling.

Roberto Deiaco: Yes, we’re going to prepare the filling. We need to remove the pulp from the pumpkin.

Emily Rodney: Okay. You need to use a spoon and not a fork?

Roberto Deiaco: Yes, with a spoon. Try to scrap out whatever you can. All the flavor is next to the skin.

Emily Rodney: Okay. So, a good tip is that all of the sweetest flavor is closest to the skin of the pumpkin.

Roberto Deiaco: Yes. Then we’re going to smash in the pumpkin. You smash it nicely. Add some salt, not too much because the pumpkin is nice and sweet, so we don’t like to over salt it.

Emily Rodney: And that’s the parmesan cheese?

Roberto Deiaco: The parmigiano, some fresh sheep ricotta. I would say 2/3 of pumpkin and 1/3 of ricotta.

Emily Rodney: And how long should you mix that all together? Should it be completely mixed through?

Roberto Deiaco: Don’t mix it too much. Otherwise, it gets soggy. Just fold it in.

Emily Rodney: So, that’s a good tip. Don’t fold it too much, just enough.

Roberto Deiaco: Just folding very softly.

Emily Rodney: And now that we have our filling all ready. What’s the next step?

Roberto Deiaco: So now, what we’re going to do is put the filling in a pastry bag and start making the Tortelli, which you’re going to help me.

Emily Rodney: Okay.

Roberto Deiaco: So, what we do is just put some like about his much in each one.

Emily Rodney: Okay.

So chef, if you don’t have a pastry bag, what’s the next best thing?

Roberto Deiaco: Actually, you can just do it with a spoon.

Emily Rodney: Great.

Roberto Deiaco: So, all you is you brush them with water and pinch them together. Make sure they are nicely closed, so they won’t open up.

Emily Rodney: So, that’s a good tip. Make sure all of the dough is covered when you’re done with it, so it doesn’t dry out. So, it stays pretty moist because of the egg dough.

Roberto Deiaco: Correct. So, what I do now, I’m going to boil the ravioli in slated water for about two minutes. We’re going to melt some butter. They’re ready to go. I’m going to toss them in the melted butter so they don’t stick together. Six pieces makes a portion.

Emily Rodney: So, what we’ve done to plate dish, we’ve just cracked a few amaretti cookies over the pasta and then we’ve added some parmesan cheese and we’ve put the chestnuts in a little melted butter until the butter gets little golden brown. It looks delicious. Let’s go try.

Roberto Deiaco: Me too.

Emily Rodney: I have to say this looks like fall in a plate. I can’t wait to try it. It definitely didn’t go light on the butter but I can worry about that in the New Year. So, what are we having?

Roberto Deiaco: Here, we have some fresh egg Tortelli with sheep ricotta, chestnuts, amaretti cookies, parmigiano and melted the butter.

Emily Rodney: Okay. Let’s try. The first thing I taste is the pumpkin. It’s so flavorful. And the creaminess with the ricotta, you really can tell, that’s fresh.

Roberto Deiaco: The sweetness of the pumpkin, the ricotta, the bitterness of the amaretti cookies and the parmersan with melted butter, it just works fantastic.

Emily Rodney: So, this is a great entrée dish but how we can we refashion it?

Roberto Deiaco: You can also serve it as an appetizer. You just—the little Tortelli or actually believe it, you can even serve as a dessert.

Emily Rodney: Oh wow!

Roberto Deiaco: You can deep fry it and add some powdered sugar and either, that’s a dessert.

Emily Rodney: That’s a nice twist. So, thank you so much for having us.

Roberto Deiaco: Thank you for coming.

Emily Rodney: Stay tuned to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and technique that are lighting the culinary world on fire. For the recipe Q and A and more, visit BehindtheBurner.com.