Pansotti con Salsa di Noci Recipe | How to Make Ligurian-Style Stuffed Pasta

This dish is a classic in Genoa and deserves to rank as highly in the public consciousness as the much more famous Pesto alla Genovese. The pasta itself, “pansotti,” are stuffed dumplings that resemble large tortellini or ravioli. They pair excellently with the traditional sauce, which is a creamy walnut pesto.

Salsa di Noci

Pansotti can be served with a number of different sauces, such as simple butter and sage, but it is most famously prepared with “salsa di noci.” This creamy walnut pesto can be easily made in a few minutes with simple ingredients and is delicious for many different uses (try it on a bruschetta). You can find our recipe here!

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Pansotti con Salsa di Noci Recipe

Makes: 3 to 4 servings

Cook Time: 2 hours

For this recipe, you will need:

• 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 milliliters) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound (450 grams) fresh baby spinach
• ½ pound (250 grams) fresh chicory, or a similar bitter green
• 1 ⅔ cups (200 grams) all-purpose or 00 flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) white wine
• ¼ cup (50 milliliters) water, or as needed
• ½ cup (125 grams) ricotta
• ½ cup (50 grams) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or as needed
• Salt
• Fresh black pepper
• Grated nutmeg
• Salsa di noci pesto

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the spinach and chicory. Sauté until tender and wilted. Set aside to cool.

On a large work surface, pour the flour into a pile and use your fingers to hollow out the center so that it resembles a volcano. Whisk the egg in a small bowl and add ½ into the flour hollow (save the remaining half for use later). Also add the white wine and water. Using a fork, begin whisking the egg and gradually incorporate the surrounding flour. When the mixture has thickened into a paste, you can begin folding in more of the flour and kneading by hand.

As you knead the dough, gradually continue to incorporate the remaining flour. You don’t need to add it all, though: eggs aren’t all the same size, so you might need less. Simply leave some flour aside if you achieve the right dough texture before it’s all kneaded in. The pasta dough should be fairly firm and springy, but soft enough to knead smooth. It definitely shouldn’t be sticky. If it does become sticky, simply dust it with more flour as needed.

Knead the pasta dough until it is smooth and even. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, you can prepare the stuffing.

Squeeze the excess water out of the greens, chop them, and place them in a bowl. Add the ricotta, the leftover egg, grated cheese, and a pinch of salt, pepper, and nutmeg. The filling should be soft and spreadable but not too wet. If it seems wet, add more grated cheese as necessary to soak up some moisture (you can never have too much Parmigiano Reggiano). Mix all together thoroughly and refrigerate for later.

Set up a pasta machine to roll the dough. Cut about ¼ of the dough off to work, but keep the remaining pasta dough wrapped in plastic so it doesn’t dry out. Flatten the dough beneath your palm into a small pancake and lightly dust both sides with flour.

Set your pasta machine rollers to the widest setting (#0 on a standard Marcato Atlas machine). Press one edge of the dough between the rollers while cranking the handle so that the pasta is pulled inward. Press the whole piece through and pull the resulting sheet of dough out from the bottom.

Adjust the rollers one setting narrower (from #0 to #1, for instance) and press the sheet through again. Repeat until you have rolled the pasta through the #6 or #7 setting (about 1 ⅓ millimeters). If your pasta, at any time, sticks to the machine, you can dust and rub it with flour. You can also cut the sheet in half if it becomes unmanageably long.

Cut the finished sheet(s) into 4 inch (10 centimeter) squares. Any leftover trimming can be added to the remaining pasta dough to roll again later. Place a heaping teaspoon of ricotta/spinach filling in the center of each square.

Take one square and fold it in half diagonally to form a triangle over the stuffing. Push the air out and press the edges shut to seal the triangle. If working in a dry environment, you may need to dab the edges with water to make them stick. To keep things simple, you can trim off the rough edges with a knife to make triangle shapes, or you can proceed to make more advanced tortellini shapes…

Take the two bottom corners of the triangle, bring them toward each other, and press them together. The result should be just like a big tortellino.

Arrange the finished pansotti on a floured surface and repeat the steps above to roll, cut, and shape the rest of the pasta with the remaining dough and filling.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously. Add the pansotti and boil for 3 to 4 minutes. While they cook, place the desired amount of salsa di noci pesto into a mixing bowl (this is subjective, but about 1 big spoonful per serving is a good starting place). Stir in just enough of the pasta water to thin the pesto into a creamy sauce.

When the pasta is cooked, transfer it into the mixing bowl with a slotted ladle. Gently stir all together until the pasta is well coated, then serve.

Buon appetito!