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The Dumpling 100 · make it at home

Agnolotti del plin with butter and sage

2 hr 30 min · 4 to 6 people

Piedmont's tiny pinched pasta, filled with a mix of roast meats and greens; 'plin' means pinch. Tossed in butter and sage, or in truffle season under shaved white truffle.

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You need

• For the filling: 200 g (7 oz) pork shoulder, diced
• 200 g (7 oz) veal or beef chuck, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) stock
• 150 g (5 oz) spinach or escarole, blanched and squeezed dry
• 60 g (2/3 cup) Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• 1 egg
• nutmeg, salt and pepper
• For the pasta: 300 g (2 1/3 cups) 00 flour
• 2 eggs plus 4 yolks (the Langhe likes it rich)
• To serve: 80 g (6 tbsp) butter, 10 sage leaves, Parmigiano, or a fresh white truffle in season

How to make it

1. Braise the meat (1 hr): Brown the pork and veal in the oil and butter over medium-high, 8 minutes. Add onion, garlic and rosemary and cook 3 minutes, then the wine; let it bubble away. Add the stock, cover and braise gently 45 minutes until tender. Discard the rosemary.
2. Make the filling (10 min): Grind the meat and its juices with the spinach in a food processor until fine but not pasty. Mix in the Parmigiano, egg, a grating of nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cool and spoon into a piping bag (or a zip bag with the corner cut).
3. Make the pasta (15 min, plus 30 min rest): Work flour, eggs and yolks into a firm dough, knead 10 minutes, wrap and rest.
4. Roll and fill (40 min): Roll a strip very thin, about 0.8 mm and 8 cm (3 in) wide. Pipe hazelnut-size dots of filling along it, 2 cm (3/4 in) from the edge and 2 cm apart. Fold the near edge over the dots. Pinch the pasta between each dot with thumb and forefinger (the plin), then press the long edge shut. Cut along the long edge with a fluted wheel, then cut between the pinches with a quick forward stroke so each one folds over on itself.
5. Cook (2 min): Boil in salted water 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until they float and the pasta is tender.
6. Sauce and serve: Meanwhile melt the butter with the sage until it foams and smells nutty. Lift the plin straight into the pan with a splash of pasta water, toss, and serve with Parmigiano, or shave white truffle over at the table.

Tips

• In the Langhe, plin are also served 'al tovagliolo': drained into a napkin and eaten plain, to taste the filling.
• Leftover braise or roast is the traditional filling; use what you have.

Chef Amazing's own home version of agnolotti del plin, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.