Mushroom and Chestnut Tortellini with Chicken Butter Sauce
Today is Sunday, January 3rd - the hight of food purgatory between one last day of Christmas indulgence and kick-starting the January health routine. The current stock take of my cupboards reads: six types of cheese, a bag of potatoes, chestnuts, stock, mince pies and some three days past best parsnips. I can’t recommend which food group to give up or share my latest exercise routine with you, but for turning Christmas scraps into one last dish to see out the festive period, I’m your girl.
I’ve used chestnuts and mushrooms to create a duxelles filling for my tortellini that also works great for stuffing chicken ballotine or red peppers. The sauce here says ‘chicken butter’ because I’ve used chicken bones to start it off but the stock was made from boiling the turkey carcass from Christmas and freezing it. I’m not going to lie - this dish is rich but the diet starts tomorrow…right?
Ingredients:
200g 00’ pasta flour
2 eggs
Mushroom and Chestnut Duxelles:
50g butter
300g button mushrooms
1/2 white onion
2 garlic cloves
5 sprigs thyme
2 sage leaves, chiffonade
Salt and pepper
12 roasted chestnuts
3 tbsp double cream
Chicken Butter Sauce
100g chilled and diced butter
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
125ml dry white wine
200ml chicken/ turkey/ vegetable stock
3 chicken thigh bones or wings
5 thyme sprigs
Garnish
Sage leaves or thyme
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Whilst heating wash the chestnuts, dry and make a slit on the back with a knife. Add salt and put on an oven tray. Once the oven is at temperature bake the chestnuts for 20 minutes.
Mix the flour and eggs in a food processor. Add a little water if necessary. When it begins to come together, turn it out on a floured surface and kneed for 5 - 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest while you make the duxelles filling.
Dice the mushrooms finely or add them to a blender and pulse until finely diced (don’t allow them to become a paste). Leave to one side.
Dice the onion and garlic finely. Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes or until translucent.
Increase the heat and add the mushroom, thyme leaves, chiffonade sage, salt and pepper to the pan. Lots of water will be released from the mushrooms, keep cooking and stirring occasionally until the water has evaporated and the mix has began to brown. The volume of the mixture will also reduce as the water is lost.
Once the mixture is browned, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. Move the mix into a bowl.
When the chestnuts are done, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly so they can be handled. Where you created the split the shells should have opened, use this to peel off the shell and discard.
Chop the chestnuts into the same size pieces as the mushroom and onion pieces and add them to the bowl. Leave the mix to cool, it must be cold before making your tortellini or the pasta will burst.
Now return to your pasta. Take it out of the fridge and roll thinly into sheets starting with the first gauge of your pasta machine and working down to 6. (Go to 7 if you can but 6 is the best I can do without creating holes in the tortellini). Do half the pasta and keep the rest covered while you work.
Cut circles in the pasta sheet using a cookie cutter. Add a teaspoon of the cooled duxelles into the middle of the circle, dab water on one side of the circle then fold making sure to push out any air bubbles. This video is good to learn the basic shape but there are lots of different ones out there to try (You can also cut the dough into squares which gives the paste a delicate pointed shape when it’s folded).
Now time for the sauce which is possibly my favourite part because it’s so silky and delicious. Get your chicken bones and smash once or twice with a knife to break. Add to the pan with a little oil and allow brown well. They might stick slightly, which is fine - all the more flavour.
While the chicken is cooking, chop the onion and garlic then add to the pan. Once they begin to turn translucent, add your thyme to the pan.
Deglaze the pan with white wine (I actually used left over prosecco from Christmas) and allow it to simmer and reduce down to almost nothing. When the wine is reduced, add your stock.
Add one or two small pieces of butter and whisk in. This is called ‘monte’-ing The butter emulsifies the sauce and gives it a rich luxurious flavour. Once the butter if fully incorporated, gradually add and whisk in the remaining butter piece by piece.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a pan and set aside, ready to serve with your pasta.
Finally bring a pan of water to the boil with a handful of salt (seriously it should be like sea water). Add your pasta to the pan and cook in portions if necessary. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes. When the pasta floats it’s ready. Take out of the water and strain.
Finally pour a little of the sauce into a bowl. Arrange your tortellini and then pour over the rest of the sauce. Garnish with sage leaves or thyme and a twist of pepper.