Rotolo di Pasta
Source of Recipe
REQUESTED from resturant
Recipe Introduction
"I would very much like to have the recipe for the wonderful dish called Rotolo di Pasta from Antica Roma," writes Camera reader Suzanne Buggel.
"It's made with a sage-butter sauce, and it is so good that I always order it. I'm hoping that you can convince them to share the recipe so others may try it also, but most of all to free me up to try other dishes!"
"Rotolo" means rolled pasta, says Silvano De Luca, owner of Antica Roma. Born in Rome, De Luca claims responsibility for introducing this stuffed, pinwheel-shaped pasta to Colorado when he moved here 14 years ago and opened his restaurant. "It's like a big sausage, where the pasta is rolled with ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper, Parmesan and a little nutmeg," he says.
De Luca has at his fingertips a daily supply of large, fresh pasta sheets to make his rotolo. He also owns Il Pastaio in town, a small pasta store where you can buy whole pasta sheets for rotolo or, if you call ahead, ready-made rotolo stuffed with ricotta and spinach or salmon.
If you want to make your own pasta sheets at home, think big. They'll need to measure 12 by 18 inches, De Luca says, but the good news is that one sheet will feed four.
Rotolo is a simple matter of assembly. Lay a sheet of fresh, uncooked pasta on a work table, spread the filling over it, roll it up into a fat sausage shape, boil it for an hour, then slice it into half-inch-thick pieces (the insides look like a spiral).
At Antica Roma, these then get baked until golden with a sage-infused butter or, if the customer prefers, the pieces go into the oven alone, to be topped later with a tomato-basil sauce.
If a two-ingredient sauce of butter and sage sounds basic, it is.
"In Italy we use very simple recipes," says De Luca. "Rotolo is a delicate dish. It already has flavor in it, so you don't want to overpower it with something that has a stronger flavor. Butter and sage marry with it well."
List of Ingredients
Antica Roma's Rotolo di Pasta packs in flavor
By Melissa Castleman
For the Camera
2 pounds fresh spinach (fresh is recommended, but in a pinch substitute 1 pound frozen spinach)
1 pound ricotta
2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
Dash of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
5 to 6 whole leaves of fresh sage, plus more for garnish, if desired
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 uncooked sheet of fresh pasta measuring 12 by 18 inches (if only a dried sheet of pasta is available, boil the pasta in salted water until it softens and becomes flexible)
Recipe
Directions: Cook the spinach briefly, for about two minutes, in a pot of salted boiling water. Drain, then thoroughly squeeze dry the spinach. In a bowl, mix the spinach with the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg.
Bring a large pot of water to boil (the pasta will soon go into it), then salt the water. Place the pasta sheet flat on a countertop or table. Spread the spinach mixture over the entire surface of the pasta; the spinach mixture should be about ¼-inch thick. Roll the pasta tightly into a fat sausage shape. If your pot isn't big enough to accommodate the whole rotolo, cut it into two even pieces. Wrap the rotolo tightly in a white cotton napkin, tying the ends of the napkin securely with wire twists (like those that are used to tie grocery-store produce bags). The rotolo is cooked inside a tied napkin in order to keep the spinach filling from leaking out into the boiling water.
Cook the rotolo in the boiling water for one hour. Drain and unwrap the rotolo. When it is cool enough to touch, cut the rotolo into ½-inch-thick slices.
In a small skillet over low heat, melt the butter with 5 to 6 leaves of sage. Be careful not to burn the sage or brown the butter. When the sage leaves become brittle, remove the pan from the heat. Take out the sage leaves and save them for a garnish, if desired.
Preheat oven to 350. Place the rotolo slices in individual, buttered crockery bowls, about four slices to a bowl, or place them all together on a buttered baking sheet. You can bake the pasta with the sage-infused butter, drizzling on the butter before it goes into the oven, or you can sauce the pasta after it is baked. Bake the pasta until it turns golden, 8 to 10 minutes. If you haven't done so already, spoon the melted butter lightly over the pasta. (You don't need much.) Garnish with the fried sage leaves or with fresh sage leaves if you prefer. Top with grated Parmesan and serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
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