The Gustologist’s Christmas recipe

It's that time of year again: we're ready to savor—literally!—the anticipation of the most magical time of the year. Christmas is approaching and, as is tradition, we want to accompany you with a useful virtual Advent calendar. Starting today, every day you can discover original recipes to inspire your holiday meals, table setting tips, and interesting facts about the holidays. Ready to follow us?

Let's start with the first recipe: Sandro Poli, aka The Gustologist, offers us his tortelli rigati with black cabbage, sage, and beurre blanc.

Ingredients:

For the white pasta

• 150 g 00 flour
• 70 g lukewarm water

Pour the flour into a mound, create a volcano shape and pour the water into the center. Using a fork, slowly incorporate the flour from the sides towards the center and begin to knead until you have a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

For the black dough

• 200 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon activated charcoal or squid ink

Pour the flour into a mound, create a volcano shape and pour the eggs into the center together with the activated charcoal or squid ink. Using a fork, begin to beat the eggs and slowly incorporate the flour from the sides towards the center and begin to knead until you obtain a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

For the filling

• 300 g sheep's milk ricotta
• 300 g black cabbage
• 70 g Parmesan cheese

Boil salted water in a pot, add the black cabbage leaves with the central stalk removed. Drain and chop finely.

Pour the ricotta, kale, and Parmesan cheese into a bowl and mix well. Pour everything into a piping bag.

For the beurre blanc

• 360 g butter from the refrigerator
• 60 ml champagne
• 60 ml white wine vinegar
• Maldon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• Pepper to taste

Method

Roll out the white dough and then the black dough. Form rectangles measuring approximately 20cm x 8cm and overlap a sheet of white dough and a sheet of black dough. At this point, cut the dough in half and place the pieces on top of each other, cut in half again so that the dough is 5cm thick and overlap. Turn the dough over and you will see that it is now colored with a thousand black and white stripes. Roll out lightly with a rolling pin and pass it through a pasta machine to obtain a striped sheet of dough. Cut into squares measuring approximately 6cm x 6cm, fill them with the filling and place them on a grill.

Now let's prepare the beurre blanc. First, cut the butter into cubes and leave it in the refrigerator. Pour the champagne, a handful of pepper, and the vinegar into a saucepan and reduce until about 10% of the liquid remains. At this point, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the butter cubes one at a time. Using a whisk, emulsify the mixture, adding the butter once the previous cube has melted. Finally, pour the beurre blanc into a bowl and add a pinch of turmeric. 

Cook the tortelli in a pot with plenty of salted water, then transfer them to a pan with a knob of butter and sage leaves.

Pour 3 tablespoons of beurre blanc onto the bottom of the Linea Circus Green plate, add the tortelli coated with butter and sage, and decorate with edible flowers. In this case, I brushed the dish with edible gold to make it more precious.