Tarragon tortelloni stuffed with Chicken breast, baby Spinach and Queso de Cabrales.

Last summer I'd applied for a weekend chef job in a little hotel in the centre of york. It was quite a nice little place, and the existing menu was awful. They told me to design and cost out a menu, whatever i felt like, and I had a couple interviews.
Well it seems like wasabi carpaccio was not really their cup of tea, so the owner asked me to design some dishes "maybe with pasta" .zzz. but hey, she wants pasta she gets pasta. Over the next few days i had to come up with a couple of new dishes, so had my friends coming over in shifts to eat :)
I didn't get the job because i was too young, and they employed someone shit who has now left. I guess it's their loss. Anyway, if it helped increase my scope and repertoire then it can't be a bad thing after all.

Tarragon tortelloni stuffed with Chicken breast, baby Spinach and Queso de Cabrales. Winter Radish and Rucolla salad.

Memories of this dish came flooding back to me this morning when i saw the cheese, a gorgeous strong spanish blue cheese, often made of mixed milks, mentioned in the excellent gastroblog ilovenapa.

The first time i made it this way , I knew it was right, because my friends ate half of the mix on bread out of the pan before I even had chance to stuff the pasta. some of them even made weird sex noises. bad boys.

serves 4 (hungry people), or 12 as a starter

for the pasta:
Half a bunch of Tarragon, finely minced
1lb (500g) "OO" strength flour
4/5 eggs
Just a little extra virgin olive oil
semolina is useful too, for ease of rolling, but it is by no means essential.
1 tbsp salt

On a clean and dry countertop, with clean dry hands, pile up all of your flour and make a hole in the middle. add two of the eggs and all of the the tarragon. break the eggs innerds up, and bring flour from the sides over the top.combine, a dough should start to form. add the other eggs and the salt as and when you feel like it. I wont patronise you. I'm sure you can knead. If not the best way to learn is to practice. Knead until firm *about 15 minutes* hopefully. pop the dough in a polythene bag and refrigerate for atleast 1 hour.
You can do this in a blender by just tipping it all in and pressing VRRRRRRRRRRR. This is a cowboy method which leads to poor results (I've tried it). Please use your hands. kneading the dough and working with your hands is good for the soul.

For the filling:
500/600 g chicken, breast preferably, diced into pieces a bit bigger than 1cm
200g baby spinach
200g mascarpone cheese
200g Cabrales cheese. If this is not available go for Roquefort or similar.
freshly cracked black Pepper
Some remaining Tarragon, minced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 smaller Spanish (white) onions, finely diced
butter
salt and sugar on hand
125ml of double cream
a splash of dry white wine
Olie oil (not extra virgin)

1. Sautee the onions in the olive oil for 5/6 minutes over a medium/high heat. Add a good few cracks of black pepper and the diced chicken to the pan and continue to cook.
2. When the chicken has been in for about 4 or 5 minutes, add the garlic, then a few seconds later a splash of wine.
3. Add the spinach and tarragon and cream and continue to sautee for a minute and a half, stirring slowly and continously.
4. Over a medium heat how, start to incorporate the cheeses in smallish blobs. use all of the cheese.
5. Season to taste, maybe even a little sugar, and set aside. The sauce should be fairly thick. It will continue to thicken as it cools. The beauty of this dish is not a complicated technique or special skill. It's a means of showcasing great produce and combining well balanced and matched flavours.

Now for the fun part.
Making your tortelloni
roll the pasta on a floured or semolinad (?) surface until nice and thin. maybe 3 mm. dont try doing the whole block at once. cut it into quarters. When rolled, cut the sheet into 3 or 4 inch squares. fill with a tablespoon or maybe a little more of the cool(ish) mixture and wrap into a tortelloni shapes. I don't have a camera at the moment but they look something like this.
Unless you're hellbent on calling them tortelloni, the shape is not terribly important. as long as they are completely sealed and water tight. Do not over fill them. They could even be rolled into canneloni and baked. Keep in air tight tupperware in the fridge until ready to serve. they should last 3 days.

To serve
Bring a deep pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the pasta, cook for 5 minutes, and serve on a bed of rucolla (arugala) and thinly sliced radish or winter radish. If desired, melt some butter in a pan with either the juice and zest of half a lemon, or the remaining tarragon. pour over and serve.

Delicious everytime, another great recipe to either follow exactly or have fun with and be creative.

Bon appetit.