My life has been blessed with two beautiful family weddings recently. Both of my sisters have daughters. Cuzzies Melisa and Nicci married within 3 weeks of each other. Oh the joy of it all still brings happy tears to my eyes. Of course, weddings mean Bridal Showers and this means ‘pretty food’. Being ‘la mamma’ in an all-male Italian casa, my food tends to be rustic, substantial and made in very large quantities so the opportunity to make ‘pretty dainty food’ is rare and very exciting for me. I relished the challenge with great gusto!

These little ‘Rotolini’ are Italy’s equivalent of Japans sushi. Fresh thin sheets of homemade pasta are rolled up with any number of fillings; they are tasty and conducive to a little flurry of decoration which makes them perfect for a bridal shower. You can fill rotolini with any number of different fillings, and instead of rolling them up in pasta you could roll them in smoked salmon, Parma ham or cabbage leaves! They are pop-in-the-mouth perfect!

Rotolini di Salmon

Makes 40 pieces.

Rotolini di Salmone

Salmon & Caviar Pasta Rolls

This recipe has two parts – first we make the pasta sheets and then the we filling.

The Pasta Sheets

Ingredients

200g SASKO flour – always soft and fluffy

2 eggs

2tsp olive oil

1tsp salt

Method

Place the eggs, Sasko flour, olive oil and salt into your mixer fitted with a dough hook, or your food processor or mix by hand on a clean cold surface in your kitchen.

Once the dough has started to come together, pour it out onto a clean, flour dusted surface, bring the dough together by hand and knead for a good 5 minutes or until the surface of your dough is smooth and shiny!

If the dough is a little dry, simply wet your hands and continue to knead. Just a little bit of water on your hands should do the trick

Cover the dough in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes or longer

Your pasta dough before kneading.

And after kneading …. see how the surface is nice and smooth.

Spicy Salmon & Cream Cheese filling

Ingredients

¼ cup fresh basil

1/4cup fresh dill

¼ cup fresh parsley

½tsp smoked paprika

1Tbs pepper sauce, such as Lea & Perrins or Tobasco Sauce – adjust this amount to suit your self

3 spring onions cut into 1/2cm lengths

2 cloves of garlic crushed

The zest of 1 lemon

The juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt & White Pepper to taste

200g Smoked Salmon

250g Cream Cheese

1Tbs tomato paste

2Tbs red or black Capelin Caviar

An extra sprig of dill to snip over the rotolini for garnishing

Method

Roughly chop the herbs and spring onion and place in a food processor, add the paprika, hot sauce, garlic, lemon zest and juice of ½ a lemon

Process this for about 1 minute; add the rest of the ingredients until you have a nice creamy filling. Of course, you need to taste the mixture and adjust according to your taste buds. You may want to add a little more lemon juice, salt or pepper – you decide.

Now to make the pasta sheets.

Remove the relaxed dough from your fridge and cut into 4 equal parts.

Take one of the 4 pieces and flatten it with your hand

Lightly flour a piece and roll it through your pasta machine on the largest setting, then fold it in on itself twice, lightly flour again and repeat this 3 times.

Now roll the piece of pasta through the machine, always dusting it with a little flour in between each roll. Roll the pasta sheet on each size until you get a nice, thin sheet of pasta. I rolled mine to setting no.7 which was fine.

Repeat with each of the 4 pieces of pasta dough. Cut the edges of the dough nice and straight and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and cook 2 sheets of the pasta at a time.

Place a piece of cling wrap on your counter – the cling wrap needs to be wider than your two sheets of pasta placed side by side

and slightly overlapped.

Place the two sheets of pasta on the cling wrap

Using a pallet knife spread a thin layer of the salmon and cream cheese filling over the pasta making sure to go right up to the outer edges

Gently lift the bottom end of the cling wrap up and roll pasta back, like you would roll up a mat!

Once you have reached your desired thickness, cut off the rest of the pasta and roll the roll up in cling film.

Twist the ends up tightly in the opposite direction so that you get a nice tube and place in the fridge for 20 minutes before you cut them.

This serves to set the shape nicely and make them easier to cut.

Place the left over filling into a piping bag with a large nozzle.

Using a flat bladed sharp knife cut off 3cm thick slices of your rotolino.

Top Tip:

Clean your knife under hot running water between cutting out each slice of rotolino, this will ensure a nice clean slice every time!

Don’t forget to remove the cling wrap of each one. Arrange on your serving tray.

I placed each rotolino onto a serving spoon and arranged them on a three tiered cupcake serving tray.

Pipe on a floret of the left over filling on top of each rotolino

Garnish the cream cheese with a little caviar and dill.

Pretty as can be for a Bridal Shower!

Poor TrickyRicky was at home convalescing after an operation on his neck – so I made him two extra large, extra special ones. xxx

I couldn’t possibly sign off without sharing a pic of the beautiful bride, Nicci and her hunky hubby Scotty.

Mr and Mrs Scott Hosking

May you live Happy Ever After ……

I just love a wedding!

as always

Buon Appetito

Jan

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