cheat tortellini

Use store-bought Chinese dumpling wrappers to make these tortellini in no time. Make them in batches for a lazy pasta dinner. They go nicely with a simple herbed butter or, for the even more lazy, use pre-made tomato sauce.

Makes 18-20 tortellini

Ingredients

18-20 round dumpling wrappers (I use Happy Belly)

8-10 stalks curly kale

1 handful sweet corn shoots

200 g feta cheese in brine

1 small shallot, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1 small egg, lightly whisked

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of chili flakes

Olive oil for cooking

Recipe Preparation

Preparation station

• Small bowl of water for sealing wrappers
• Damp kitchen cloth for covering wrappers
• Shallow baking tray dusted with non-gluten flour such as rice flour or corn starch

Filling preparation

Wash kale, remove stalks, and tear leaves apart into smaller pieces. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large, shallow pan on medium high. Sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and sliced shallots and sauté until soft. (Add a splash of water if it looks too dry.) Add paprika and season with salt and pepper. Set aside and cool to room temperature. Put kale mixture onto chopping board and roughly chop.

Use kitchen paper to pat dry feta cheese.

In medium mixing bowl, crumble feta cheese with your fingertips, add chili flakes and kale mixture, and season with salt and pepper. Combine ingredients with fork.

Dumpling assembly

The wrappers will dry out if they have been exposed to air for too long, so use a damp kitchen cloth to cover them while you assemble the dumplings.

Prepare your station with wrappers, kale and feta filling, small bowl of water (for sealing dumplings), and flour-dusted baking tray. (Flour helps dumplings avoid sticking to pan.)

Take a wrapper, place a heaping teaspoon of kale and feta mixture onto middle. Wet fingertip and dampen edges of wrapper. Fold dumpling in half from bottom and press gently from left to right to seal edges. Press out any air between filling and wrapper to avoid bursting while cooking.

Now you should have a half moon-shaped dumpling. With edges facing downward, pleat the edges or wait until you’ve filled all the wrappers before pleating. If you’d prefer them more tortellini-like, wet one finger and dab on right corner of dumpling edge, then bring left corner and overlap it onto the right. Press to adhere and form tortellini shape. Repeat for remaining. If you wish to freeze the dumplings, prepare a freezer-proof tray (I just use a aluminium baking tray), lightly dust with flour, and place dumplings on top in single layer. Keep some space between them, and freeze for at least 2 hours before transferring to a Ziplock bag and returning to freezer.