Tortelli di patate [Tortelli with potato filling]

Ingredients

For the dough:
8 eggs
1 kg flour

For the filling:
1 kg potatoes
2 hg Parmesan cheese
nutmeg as needed
garlic and parsley as needed
extra-virgin olive oil

Method

Mugellan tortelli with potato filling are the most typical and authentic Tuscan traditional recipe for stuffed fresh egg pasta. Here is how to make them, according to an old recipe kindly passed on to us by Azienda Agricola Sanvitale (www.agriturismosanvitale.it):
Boil the potatoes. Meanwhile, knead the dough: make a well in the middle of the flour mound, leaving aside about 200 grams that you will add along the kneading process. Crack the eggs and blend them slowly into the dough one by one. Keep working the dough until it is a soft smooth ball that doesn’t stick to your hands. Cover up the dough and let it stand for about half an hour, then cut it into pieces and roll them out, by hand or with a pasta machine, until you obtain strips of dough approximately 2 millimetres thick. When the potatoes are ready and still steaming hot, mash them and add the chopped parsley and garlic, the grated nutmeg, the Parmesan cheese and oil as needed. If you like you can also add one or two spoonfuls of tomato sauce, and use rosemary instead of parsley. On the dough, about 2 centimetres (one inch) away from one another, place balls of the filling compound as big as a walnut, then fold the dough lengthwise and press it on the lower layer so as to squeeze out the air and seal the pasta squares. Cut out any excess dough with a jagging wheel and separate the tortelli; this will produce a better and more ornamental sealing of the pasta. Place the tortelli on a floured board and throw them a few at a time into some boiling water until they are cooked (about two minutes).
Serve with a generous cheese dusting and meat ragout, with duck sauce or with sage leaves browned in some butter or oil, with some chilli if you like. There is in fact an even more 'rustic' variant, whose filling is boiled and crushed chestnuts instead of potatoes.