Cheese-Stuffed Agnolotti Pasta Recipe

Instructions

Make the filling

1. Cut the cheese into small chunks.
2. Warm the milk and add the cheese and stir
3. Once the cheese has melted, allow to cool and then add the butter and egg yolk.
4. Cook over a low heat while whisking/stirring continuously until the butter has melted and the sauce has thickened.
5. Remove from heat, allow to cool and refrigerate while you make the pasta dough.

Make the pasta dough

1. Pour the flour into a mound in a bowl, on a wooden pastry board or in your stand mixer.
2. If using a bowl or wooden board create a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs and egg yolk (usually unbeaten) and the olive oil.
3. Using a fork first, beat the eggs and then with the same fork or a pastry scraper bring flour from the edges of the mound into the centre until the eggs are no longer runny.
4. If using a stand mixer begin mixing all the ingredients and start kneading dough in the mixer.
5. Then turn out on to a pastry board.
6. Knead the dough using the heel of your hand and continue until you have a homogeneous dough that is only slightly sticky to touch (usually about 10 to 15 minutes).
7. If the dough is dry add a little warm water and knead some more.
8. Form the dough into a ball and leave it to rest for 20 to 30 minutes covered with a tea towel or covered in plastic wrap.
9. I used my kitchen stand mixer to start the dough but finished kneading on my pastry board.

Make the agnolotti del plin.

1. After the dough has rested, roll ¼ of it into a thin sheet a couple of millimeters thick with a rolling pin or with the help of a pasta machine, starting with the widest setting and then using the narrower ones.
2. Take the rolled out portion of pasta dough, place it on a floured pastry board and cut off the ends to make a rectangle.
3. Disperse a row of small mounds of filling along the long edge of the pasta sheet closest to you.
4. You can do this with a teaspoon or with the filling inside a pastry bag.
5. We used a teaspoon.
6. Continue along the edge of the pasta sheet, just far enough apart to pinch between each mound with your fingers.
7. Once the pasta sheet is lined with small mounds of filling, brush around each mound with egg white.
8. Then take a firm hold of each end of the sheet, and turn it over on top of itself, ensuring there is an edge formed on the outer side.
9. Cut away most of the excess dough on the outer side.
10. Using the index finger and thumb of both hands, pinch the dough on each side of each mound of filling starting at one end.
11. Move down the row of mounds, repinching the one pinched side and closing the open side with a new pinch until the entire row is pinched.
12. Again, cut any excess pasta dough away from the outer side of the dough sheet using a pastry wheel, leaving enough space to form the agnolotti.
13. Then with the same pastry wheel, cut between the agnolotti to separate them.
14. Transfer to a well-floured tray while you make more agnolotti.
15. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.