3-Cheese Beet Striped Triangoli

I’ve been waiting for the right time to attempt striped pasta. I wanted to get completely comfortable troubleshooting standard egg dough in a variety of shapes first, and work individually with spinach and beet dough, before combining the two.

After experimenting for a bit, I can safely say that it is best to use the egg dough as your base, and then layer the colored bits on top. If you try to do the reverse, there’s a higher likelihood that your colors will get muddied.

To get started, you will need one batch of egg dough, and another batch of beet dough.

Start by rolling out a sheet of the egg dough. This is your base. Next, roll out a sheet of the beet dough, and cut them into strips, about the size of tagliatelle.

Arrange the beet strips horizontally on top of the sheet of egg dough. There may be some bits that overhang; you can trim these.

Using the palm of your hands or a rolling pin, press the beet strips into the egg dough. Next, you can run the entire sheet back through your pasta machine until they are fully incorporated.

Then you can proceed to make any of the shapes you would typically make with plain egg pasta dough.

I experimented with a variety of filled and unfilled shapes, and found that the laminated dough behaved well despite having been worked extra.

For the stuffed shapes, I made a three-cheese filling using:

• 200g ricotta

• 100g stracchino

• 25g pecorino romano

This filling is similar to the meatless filling found in some cappelletti romagnoli, but was really just a product of what I had on hand. It’s incredibly creamy, and I much prefer it to regular ricotta ravioli.

To make the triangoli, or alternatively for mezzelune, simply cut the laminated pasta sheet into large circles or squares, pipe in a tablespoon of filling, and firmly seal.

This filling would probably go well with a tomato-based sauce, but I served them in a simple butter and sage dressing. Adding pine nuts is also a nice touch!