Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Blow Your Dinner Guests Away With Homemade Tortellini

TJ Carter
By

how to make tortellini
A man who knows how to cook is a glorious thing. Fellas, if you want to make yourself more attractive to potential romantic partners, you would do well to build a modest repertoire of delicious dishes — a culinary oeuvre that shows you know how to feed yourself and others. Whether you have a little cooking experience or none at all, you might dive into the world of cooking by learning how to make tortellini from scratch. Why the hell not?

For those who don’t know what tortellini is, it’s a type of ring-shaped stuffed pasta. It’s kind of like ravioli in that sense, but with a bit more height to it. The important thing is it’s delicious and fancy. You’ll find the phrase “Why don’t you come over? I’ll make some homemade tortellini” to be a powerful aphrodisiac. This particular recipe for pork and crab tortellini comes to us from Kyo Koo, Executive Chef of Bluehour. Bluehour is an upscale New American restaurant in Portland, OR, and Chef Kyo is well-versed in culinary traditions from around the world. You’re in good hands.

Related Videos
Tortellini Time Lapse from Bluehour Restaurant

Pork and Crab Tortellini

Tortellini dough:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Combine egg and water in one mixing bowl. Whisk together lightly with fork.
  2. Sieve together flour and salt in separate bowl. In two batches, add egg and water mixture to flour until combined. Knead by hand for 5 minutes until well combined and dough is smooth. Rest for 1 hour.
  3. Roll dough in two batches through pasta machine starting from “6” setting going gradually down to the “1” setting. Note: You can also use a rolling pin, though you’ll need to get the dough really flat. Pasta machines are easy to come by and affordable. This one is available on Amazon for $30.
  4. Cut the dough into roughly 3” x 3” squares

Related: The Manual’s Guide to Cooking

Pork and crab tortellini filling:

Ingredients:

  • 6 oz ground pork shoulder
  • 4 oz Dungeness crab meat, picked and dried
  • 1 whole egg
  • 2 tablespoons finely minced scallions
  • 1 tablespoon finely minced chives
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon finely minced shallots
  • 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
  • 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons potato starch

Directions:

  1. To make filling, combine pork shoulder, crab meat, and egg, mix together gently.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and make sure filling is mixed evenly.
  3. Place a small amount of filling onto each dough square (it might take a few practice rounds to get the right amount).
  4. Gently fold the tortellini dough and filling, then fold the two sides back onto each other.
  5. Boil in salted water for 3-5 minutes, or to desired doneness.

Now that you know how to make tortellini, you have incredible power at your fingertips. Of course, you don’t have to put pork and crab filling into your tortellini — you can put just about whatever you want in there. We urge you to have fun and experiment as you embrace the magic of homemade tortellini.

Visit Bluehour’s website to see their menu and learn more about Chef Kyo Koo.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
This NYC restaurant’s $518, 19-course tasting menu of Chinese cuisine is amazing
Chef Guo in New York is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a feast for the senses and the palate
Chef Guo food.

Butterfly Falls in Love with the Flower.

Step inside the restaurant Chef Guo, and the first thing you'll be greeted with is a majestic model of a ginko tree, the national tree of China, complete with brightly colored golden leaves. The tree cascades over the dining room, a space filled with Chinese calligraphy on the walls and regal Indonesian Zi Tan rosewood chairs. Soft and pleasant Chinese instrumental music plays in the background, an oasis in an otherwise hectic Midtown Manhattan.

Read more
Corned beef and cabbage: Learn how to make this St. Patrick’s Day classic
It isn't St. Patrick's Day without a cold pint and a big plate of corned beef and cabbage
best corned beef and cabbage recipe 2

As St. Patrick's Day rolls around again, many of us will dutifully trudge to the grocery store, pick up our corned beef from the bulk display, head home and boil that piece of meat to death in the name of 'tradition.' Many of us are guilty of going through the motions of culinary traditions without giving a second thought to whether or not they actually taste good (we're looking at you, fruitcake). But in the case of corned beef, this is a real travesty, because this is a dish that, when done properly, is exquisitely delicious. One so good, in fact, that, if we knew better, would be on a weekly rotation, and not just an annual one.

Many corned beef and cabbage recipes out there call for a braise, which makes sense. Corned beef is most often a brisket cut, which requires low and slow cooking to ensure a tender result. Too often, though, those braises turn out flabby, lifeless, flavorless pieces of meat that we only feel obligated to eat because St. Patrick told us to. Let's put an end to that here and now. This is how to cook corned beef and cabbage the right way.

Read more
Study: Which fast food restaurant gives you the worst bang for your buck?
Fast-casual restaurants: Where customers say they get the most value for their money
fast food and casual restarants with worst bang for buck burgers on grill

Whether we care to admit it or not, we all have our favorite fast-food restaurants. For all the bad rap they get, there's really just no comparing their convenience or ability to satisfy that insane, so-bad-it's-good, otherworldy craving for a greasy brown bagged burger and fries. Say what you will about the extra fat and calories, overly processed ingredients, and insane levels of sodium and cholesterol. At the end of the day, sometimes you've just got to give in and be bad.

And while we all have our favorites, from McDonald's to Jimmy John's, in a recent study, some fast-casual restaurants fared better than others when it came down to the best bang for your buck.

Read more