Casunziei All'Ampezzana
Spring has basically sprung, but there are a few cold days left here and there. One cloudy and rainy day this week I decided to clear out the last of some beetroot puree I made this winter that has been hiding in the back of my freezer.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at casunziei all'Ampezzana, a stuffed half-moon ravioli originally from Cortina d’Ampezzo, a town in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy’s north.
Casunziei are a pasta whose filling traditionally depends on what was seasonally and locally available. This meant a green filling (spinach, chive, and cheese) in the spring and a red one (beet and potato) in the winter.
Most of the traditional recipes I’ve found feature a mix of potato, red beets, and either yellow beets or white turnips, too. Since I’m aiming to clear out some root veg and not buy any more, I decided to follow the combo found in Giulia Scarpaleggia’s book Cucina Povera, which uses potato, red beets, and onion.
The dressing for these red-filled casunziei is typically simple - butter and a sprinkling of poppy seeds.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
3 eggs
300g 00 flour
semolina flour, for dusting
For the filling:
450g beets
200g white or yellow potato
1/2 onion, diced
nutmeg
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
For the sauce:
115g butter
poppy seeds
Start by preparing the vegetables for the filling. Preheat your oven to 400F/200C. Wash the beets and coat them in olive oil. Roast them until completely fork tender, about 1 hour. At the same time, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the potatoes until fork tender as well. Once cooked through, allow both the beets and potatoes to cool down, then peel.
As the root vegetables cook and cool, start on your pasta dough. Make a standard egg dough using the well-method, shown here. Once the dough is smooth and elastic, cover with plastic and allow to rest while you finish the filling.
In a medium skillet, heat up a drizzle of olive oil and sautee the diced onion until softened, around 5-7 minutes. Grate the peeled beets and pass the potatoes through a ricer (or mash them with a fork). Add the beet and potato to the pan with the onions, along with a pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes just to slightly dry the mixture out, then puree in a food processor with the nutmeg, and more salt and pepper to taste, until smooth.
Allow the filling to chill as you roll out your pasta dough, to a thickness of about 0.8 mm, or to number 7 if you are using a Marcato Atlas 150 pasta machine. Cut out circles that are roughly 5 cm in diameter.
I tested out a few variations before deciding on using a scalloped circle cutter.
You could also use a regular circle cutter and (optionally) crimp the closed edges with a fork.
Either scoop dollops of filling into the middle of each circle, or pipe using a pastry bag.
Close each circle to form a half moon shape. Continue until you have finished all your dough and filling.
Boil in salted water. As the casunziei cook, melt the butter. Add in a splash of the pasta water and whisk to emulsify. When the casunziei are just shy of finished (they should only take a few minutes to cook fully) add them directly into the butter and swirl to coat. Toss in a the poppy seeds, then serve immedietaly, with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano, if desired.
