If you are having filled pasta like the big chunky tortelloni or fresh egg pasta, you are probably better off keeping it simple. The last thing you want is to overpower it, so the most simple serving suggestion is to boil the tortelloni (3 minutes in gently boiling water, plenty of salt of course), remove with a slotted spoon or pour into a colander- just be careful not to break them- drizzle with a decent olive oil, sprinkle with some freshly grated parmesan. That's it!
Alternatively you could pop a chunk of butter into a pan at the same time as you are boiling the pasta, melt until frothing, remove the pasta with a slotted spoon and put straight into the butter. Serve straight away with a sprinkling of hard cheese like Parmesan.
If you want a bit more of a punchy flavour, drain the pasta and then stir through a couple of teaspoons of pesto before serving.
General rules-
- Boil in salted water. Don't be too shy with the salt as most of it will stay in the water.
- Don't boil too hard- more than simmering, but not so much it damages the filled pasta.
- Don't hang around when the 3 minutes is up- get the pasta out of the water, even if the heat is off it is still cooking and you don't want over cooked pasta.
- Serve and eat straight away, if you wait too long the pasta will go gloopy.
- Keep it simple with fresh pasta- don't overpower it.
- Get adventurous with dried pasta!
