Potato Goat Cheese Agnolotti | Lemon Brown Butter Sauce

Oh Dang! Guys, so first of all: my computer was having technical issues so I haven’t been able to post ( I finished a post via my cellphone yesterday which was awful).  As an update: my media life has been put on hold and my office life has been me on my couch working with two crazy mutts running around.

Having this second surgery on Monday is WILDLY inconvenient. I am eagerly awaiting my recovery so I can get back out there. Staying home this long is driving me c r a z y.

So anyways, while Texan (aka my temp grocery shopper) was away, I was frantically looking for something to eat in my fridge that didn’t result in a trip to the store.

Of Course, the only thing I could eat before my second surgery was pasta or soup and I was  in desperate need of something more hearty than liquid (Pasta wins every time).

I ALWAYS have ingredients for fresh pasta (flour, semolina, olive oil and eggs) so what else? Potatoes, butter, goat cheese, chives.  DONE.

Feeling a little adventurous, I wanted to try and make a pasta I haven’t made before. We’ve been eating a lot of Agnolotti lately in restaurants but, honestly, it looked so dang hard to make – All those folds, perfectly filled, delicate little pillows of goodness. But one YouTube video later and I have perfected the skill! Pasta is my spirit food.

Heres my recipe for Potato Goat Cheese and Chive Agnolotti with a Lemon  Brown Butter Sauce.

For the Pasta Dough 

Follow my recipe for pasta dough here or you can opt to buy premade pasta dough.  If making, wrap in saran wrap and allow to rest in fridge until you are ready to make the Agnolotti.

For the Filling

Place peeled and diced potatoes in a medium pot and fill with water until potatoes are just covered. Put on medium high heat and allow water to boil. Boil potatoes until a fork can poke through.  Drain potatoes and mash until smooth. Add goat cheese, parmesan, milk, chives and  salt. Mix until well incorporated.  Place into a bowl with saran wrap and put in fridge to cool completely.

Making Agnolotti

Place potato mixture in a pastry bag with large tip fitted at the end. Take out your pasta and cut into quarters.  Flatten one quarter into a thin rectangle no wider than your machine and put through the rollers on the thickest setting.  Make sure you cover your other quarters with saran wrap so they do not dry out. Continue rolling the dough through the rollers reducing the thickness each time.  Once it’s thin enough (about 1/16 inch) you should have a nice thin sheet of pasta. I like mine at about 6 level but you can go thinner to 7 or 8 depending on your machine.  Dust with flour or cornmeal and lay on the counter.

With your piping bag, pipe a long line of the potato filling along the bottom of the sheet leaving about 1/4 inch of space from the very bottom.  Brush a small amount of egg wash above the piped potato on the pasta sheet.  Gently grab the quarter inch of space on the bottom and  fold over piped potato and roll one time.  The egg wash will help seal the pasta and the piped potato should be wrapped  in the thin pasta.   

With your fingers, pinch the pasta tube upwards starting at one end and going across leaving a inch in between pinches.  With a pastry wheel or pasta cutter,  cut along the length of the pasta just above the potato filling (leaving about 1/4 inch of space).  With the same pastry wheel, cut pasta where you pinched. You should have little pillows of Agnolotti.  Place on a cornmeal dusted pan and repeat.

I will be doing videos on how to make different pastas but if you need more assistance in making agnolotti, check out YouTube.  People make it a number of different ways but the way I described above is, in my opinion, the easiest.

For the Sauce

Add butter and lemon juice in a small sauce pan on medium to low heat.  Slowly melt butter stirring occasionally.  Once butter is melted, add thyme and a pinch of salt.  Continue to cook slowly until the butter starts to turn amber in color.  Strain butter in a fine mesh sieve and set aside until ready to serve.

To Assemble

In a Large pot, boil water heavily seasoned with salt.   Add Agnolotti and cook for 1-2 minutes (they should start to float). Place on desired plate and spoon brown butter sauce overtop of cooked pasta.  Garnish with chives, lemon zest and parmesan cheese.

Enjoy! xo

*I also charred some shallots and placed them on my dish for some added texture/flavor.