Sfoglia Lorda
When I have some ricotta left over and don't know what to do with it, this is a pretty simple stuffed pasta to make with it and cook in chicken broth. The name means "dirty sheet", as in a sheet of pasta that has been dirtied by a layer of ricotta filling. The sheet is folded over and cut into little postage-stamp-sized squares. It is particularly popular in Bologna and Modena in the region of Emilia-Romagna.
I prefer to roll out the dough using a long rolling pin as described in Pasta al Mattarello. I like to roll it out thin, like 9 Post-It notes (0.45 mm). But you could also use hand-cranked pasta machine just as easily, particularly if you're in a hurry and don't feel comfortable with the rolling pin approach.
The recommended square size is about 1". Just eyeball it. It doesn't have to be perfect. And don't worry about sealing them. With mine, the ricotta was completely exposed and very few broke in the broth. They are very light, which may explain it. That said, I may someday buy a more expensive cutter that, I hope, will seal them better.
Dough
Pasta all’Uovo (00 flour recipe) with 500 g flour, prepared until it tells you to return here
Filling
Ripieno di Ricotta (parmigiano-reggiano recipe) scaled to 1 lb of ricotta, refrigerated until dough is ready for filling
Broth
1. Use the techniques described at Pasta al Mattarello to roll out the dough using a long rolling pin to the thickness of 9 Post-It notes. Then return here.
2. Find the folding seam that has the most symmetry about its axis. Mark it lightly.
3. Spread the ricotta filling as smoothly as possible on one half of the dough.
4. Fold it over along the axis of symmetry.
5. Push it down with your hands to smooth it out and seal it along the border.
6. Use the rolling pin to smooth it out even more.
7. Cut 1"-wide strips along one dimention using the jagged wheel.
8. Now cut 1"-wide strips along the other dimension using the jagged wheel.
9. You should end up with many 1" squares. If you have a really good cutter, it may even seal each square. In my case, mine came out unsealed (see photos), and I was worried, but they are so small and light that ultimately very few broke apart in the broth, thankfully.
10. Put these on a tray lined with wax or parchment paper. Stack them no more than two layers high.
11. If you do not plan to cook them immediately, cover them with aluminum foil and store in the freezer. Once frozen, you can optionally transfer them to ziplock bags.
12. Cook them in the broth.
13. When they come to the top, try one and see if it's done enough for you. Note that they will continue to cook in the broth even after you turn off the heat, and you may want to let them sit for a few minutes so that the soup cools before eating, so err on the side of stopping the cooking earlier.
14. Serve with extra grated parmigiano-reggiano. Delicious!
I could have done a better job of spreading this ricotta here, but you'll see
below that it won't matter:
After pushing it down with hands:
After rolling it smoother, you can see that the ricotta is spread out fairly evenly:
It seems that these would fall apart in the broth given how exposed the ricotta is, but miraculously very few do fall apart:
