It's the best time of the year

I'm thrilled....just thrilled! I've taken next week off, and will spend a good portion of it making my filled pastas. I have lamented in a previous post about how impossible it is to find meat tortellini, so last year I made my own! It was a lot of work, but the results were awesome. So, I will make cappelletti stuffed with a chicken, ricotta, pork mixture.

If I am completely nuts, I might go ahead and make some agnolotti, which is a typical Piedmontese shape for filled pasta. I'm thinking of filling mine with a mixture of garlic, ricotta, mozzarella and kale. Then, I'm going to make some anolini, which is a small, round shape from Parma. I'm going to stuff those with a crab, ricotta and oregano mixture.

So why all the different shapes, because it's just fun! See how pretty the anolini are?

Once the forms are made, I'll freeze them individually on baking sheets, and once hard will transfer them to vacuum-sealed bags. There's nothing like a steaming bowl of pasta in brodo. I can't wait!