Pasta Rolls

Photo: flickr user yashima

Ingredients

1 pound Ricotta Cheese (skim milk is good)

4 ounces Mozzarella, grated

4 ounces Romano, grated

cup Parmesan, grated

3 Eggs, whole or whites only

2 pounds Pasta, homemade & fresh is best. In STRIPS!!!!!!!

1 quart Chicken broth, VERY strong!

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Parmesan Cheese for topping

Tomatoe sauce, Yards of string

Yards of CHEESECLOTH !!!!

Preparation

Make the cheese filling. Simply mix all the cheeses and then add the BEATEN eggs or egg whites. Make sure the harder cheeses are grated. They mix better that way. This is a relatively bland mixture as is but don't worry.

Make the pasta. Use your favorite recipe. Green pasta is really neat for the effect. God knows the taste is great too. Cut the pasta into ABOUT 6" wide stips. The length is according to what it's for. If your serving this for dinner make the strips about 18" long. For appetizers or side dishes then only make them 6" to 10" long. Now simply lay out a piece of pasta.

Smear filling on it. Like frosting a cake. EXCEPT leave about " free of filliing on the EDGES. The begining END can be covered. The last few inches of the strip should be left bare too. Now simply roll it up! Try to keep it as stright as possible, but don't stroke out if it's a little off. Keep repeating until you have one or two rolls per person. Set aside until all of them are made. Cut a piece of cheesecloth long enough to fully wrap around a roll with several inches of overlap. Repeat until you have all the cloth pieces cut. Simply wrap each pasta roll in one piece of cheesecloth.

Tie the cloth closed. MAKE SURE IT'S LOOSE. The pasta will swell quite a bit. Make your sauce and heat. Smooth sauce I think works for a nicer visual effect. Keep it hot, but on the side. Now POACH the pasta rolls in your chicken broth. Until they're done, about 15 minutes should take care of it. But make sure it's really only a simmer. If the broth is boiling it can cause the cheese to push out of the pasta and/or the pasta to simply break-up (it's not pretty!) Here's the fun part. Take the pasta rolls out of the broth. Cut the string and unwrap each one. Slice them like sausages, into rounds, e

I do not like covering the swirling of the green pasta and the white of the cheese with the sauce. I think it shows up better with the sauce as a background color. Also having to "dip" the pices of the roll in the sauce makes for a nice taste. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese and/or chopped parsley. This is a really good recipe. You might try using the filling from Tony's Manicotti with four cheeses in place of my bland one.