In this video, master the art of making Chef John’s Cheese Agnolotti, a classic Italian stuffed pasta filled with rich, creamy cheese and wrapped in delicate homemade dough. This step-by-step guide takes you through kneading, rolling, and shaping perfect agnolotti and brings authentic Italian pasta straight to your kitchen.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Cheese Agnolotti.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you how to make my favorite stuffed pasta shape, since
00:12these adorable little plump pillows are better than ravioli and much simpler to make.
00:17And not to brag, but I am the perfect person to teach you these, since I'm really not that
00:22good at them.
00:23And unless you make them a lot, you won't be either.
00:26But it's okay, as you'll see, they're still going to come out beautifully.
00:31And to get started, we will mix up some pasta dough, which starts by adding some whole eggs
00:35into a well we made with some all-purpose flour.
00:38Or if you can find it, some double zero flour.
00:41And what we'll do is take a fork and bust those eggs right in the yolks.
00:45And then we will start scrambling.
00:47And then eventually, little by little, we will introduce some flour into the eggs.
00:52And it will turn into a thin batter.
00:54And then as we mix in more, it will turn into a thick batter.
00:58And then just as soon as it feels like it's too much work to use the fork, and the mixture
01:02has gotten nice and thick like this, we will clean up the fork and switch to a bench scraper.
01:07And we will use that to transfer the dry flour on top of the wet stuff.
01:10And then we'll basically start cutting it in like this.
01:13And if everything goes according to plan, about a minute later, we should end up with
01:17a nice shaggy dough.
01:19And once that happens, we will lose the scraper.
01:21And we will switch to our hands.
01:23And we will gather everything together and start pressing and kneading and squeezing
01:27and pushing until we've formed a rough ball of dough.
01:30And once we get to about this point, we'll grab our scraper again, and we will clean
01:35up the board.
01:36And pieces of dough that still seem kind of wet and sticky, we can push back into the
01:40dough.
01:41But those drier, crummier pieces, we should probably scrape out of the way before we start
01:45officially kneading the dough.
01:47Or at least that's what American pasta master Evan Funke thinks.
01:51And since I've patterned my new and improved pasta dough after his, I'm doing the same
01:55thing.
01:56And that's it.
01:57We'll resume kneading for about three minutes or until we've achieved a relatively smooth,
02:01fairly elastic ball of dough.
02:03And no, three minutes of kneading is not enough.
02:06But this is only the first knead.
02:08So what we'll do is pick that up and sprinkle a little bit of flour on the board and then
02:11cover this with a piece of plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.
02:15And we will take about a 10 to 15 minute break, during which time our dough is going to rest
02:20and it's going to become easier to work with and easier to knead.
02:23Speaking of which, during the second kneading, Evan Funke thinks we should introduce a little
02:28bit of air into the dough, which I just do by poking my fingers and trapping air in like
02:32this.
02:33Okay, he does it with a very fancy kneading technique that only like four people in the
02:37world know how to do.
02:39So I just give mine the old polka polka every like 30 to 40 seconds while I'm kneading.
02:45And he believes by trapping air in the dough, you get a nicer product and you don't get
02:49a dead dough, or at least that's what he calls it.
02:52But anyway, whether we do that or not, we will knead this dough a second time for about
02:55four minutes until we formed a fairly gorgeous dough that looks like this.
03:01And then what we'll do is lay that piece of plastic back on the cutting board and we'll
03:04flip our dough over a smooth rounded side down.
03:07And then we'll go around bringing the plastic up like this, wrapping that nice and tightly.
03:12And if you think I'm doing this carefully, you should watch Evan Funke do it, since it
03:16is quite a sight to behold.
03:18And if we had to, we could use this now, but I always prefer to pop mine in the fridge
03:23for a few hours, or as long as overnight.
03:26And while our dough is resting, we can mix up our cheese filling, which is very simply
03:30done by mixing Parmesan with some ricotta.
03:33We will also do one egg yolk, plus some freshly and finely chopped Italian parsley, and then
03:39we will season this up with some salt, some freshly ground black pepper, and of course
03:44a few shakes of cayenne.
03:46And then we'll take a spoon and give this a thorough mixing until everything is evenly
03:50combined, at which point we can pop that in the fridge until we're ready to use it.
03:55And once our filling is set, we can go grab our rested dough, and we'll set that down
03:59on a lightly floured surface.
04:01And then to make things easy for us non-experts, we're going to cut this in quarters, and we'll
04:06be sure to cover the other pieces with plastic so they don't dry out.
04:11And then what we'll do using just enough flour so things don't stick, is press this into
04:14some kind of rectangle shape, at which point we'll switch to a rolling pin, and we will
04:19attempt to roll this out until it's very, very thin and borderline see-through.
04:25And when a pasta master does this, they have a huge wooden table and a giant long rolling
04:29pin, and they'd roll that entire ball of dough out at once.
04:33But all us amateurs have is a small wooden cutting board and a small rolling pin, which
04:38is why I think working with a quarter of the dough at a time is the way to go.
04:42And because we're not using a nice long rolling pin, your dough might crease in certain spots,
04:47but do not be concerned.
04:49Just keep rolling, since we do not care about shape here.
04:52All we care about is getting this very, very thin.
04:55Okay, I'm not sure if you can, but I can pretty much see the grain of the cutting board through
04:59the dough.
05:00And it's key to this technique to get your dough at least this thin, if not a little
05:05thinner.
05:07And once that's been accomplished, I'm going to trim the ends off the dough, and the sides,
05:11just to kind of square this up a little bit, before we divide the dough into two strips,
05:16cutting right across the middle.
05:17And if you were hoping for perfect, neat, uniform strips, you came to the wrong video.
05:22All right, I am not that guy.
05:24Okay, you should check out one of the other chefs on YouTube that does 10 or 12 versions,
05:28and then shows you the best one.
05:30Okay, I want mine to look like what yours is probably going to look like.
05:34But as you'll see, it's not going to matter, because what we'll do once we're sure this
05:37is not going to stick to the cutting board, is that we're going to take our filling that
05:42we transferred into a zip-top bag, and we'll pipe a nice rope from one end to the other,
05:46about two inches in from the edge.
05:48And that first one I did was probably too close to the edge, so on the second one I
05:52went in a little further, which I think probably makes things a little easier when we try to
05:56fold the dough over.
05:58But before we do that, we should give this a little spritz with some water, okay, just
06:02a fine mist, just to make that dough a little stickier.
06:07And that's it.
06:08Next then, we'll attempt to fold the dough over the filling, being careful to do it without
06:12trapping big bubbles of air inside.
06:15And unless you do this all the time, and you do have that muscle memory, this is probably
06:19going to be the most challenging step.
06:22So to compensate for the lack of expertise, and possibly bad eye-hand coordination, we
06:27will just take our time, and go nice and slow.
06:30Since as my golfing buddies used to say, there's no pictures on the scorecard, and as long
06:35as we get that dough folded over, who cares if it takes 20 seconds, or a minute 20 seconds.
06:41And by the way, once it is folded over, be sure to press down nice and firmly along the
06:44seam, since ideally we want to press that dough back down to a single thickness.
06:50And also, make sure your dough is not sticking to the board, before you move to the next
06:54step, which is the most important and most fun step.
06:58And that would be the pinch.
07:00So what we'll do, once we make sure there's a little bit of flour under the dough, starting
07:04at the end, we'll take two fingers, and we will pinch every inch or so.
07:08And we will pinch very firmly, squeezing that dough as thin as we can.
07:13And as you can see after each pinch, we will re-pinch the previous pinch, and we will continue
07:18pinching and re-pinching.
07:21And by the way, when you do this at home, make your last pinch wherever the filling
07:24actually ends.
07:25Okay, I didn't do that, since I wanted these all to be the exact same size.
07:30But at home, so as not to waste any of the filling, don't worry if the one at the end
07:33ends an inch and a half instead of an inch.
07:36Which reminds me, you can make these any length you want.
07:39I mean, you are after all the Peter Coyote, of your cheese annulody.
07:43Oh, and since he lives in the same place I do, I'm only the second most famous voice
07:47over guy in town.
07:49But anyway, the point is, make these as big as you want.
07:52And then what we'll do once both those pieces have been pinched, is take a fluted pasta
07:56cutter, and cut all the way along the front edge, about an eighth of an inch away from
08:01the filling.
08:02And sure, you can do that with a regular straight edge cutter, or a knife, but it's just not
08:07going to look quite as cool.
08:09So if you are going to make these once in a while, I recommend you get this tool.
08:13And once we have those front edges trimmed off, we'll dust down a little more flour,
08:17and once again make sure our dough is not sticking to the board.
08:20And then before we cut these up, it sometimes helps to bend that pinched dough a little
08:24bit forward, before we take our cutter and run it between each one.
08:29And not only is that going to separate these, it's also going to pinch and crimp the dough,
08:34giving these their signature, and I think gorgeous appearance.
08:37I mean a ravioli is fine, but it's not sexy.
08:41And at this point, it actually starts to look like we know what we're doing.
08:45Oh, and as I make these last few cuts, you can see what I mean about pinching all the
08:49way to the end on the last one.
08:51OK, I ended up with a freakishly small annuloti.
08:54Which is not a big deal, but it is avoidable.
08:57And then as we complete these, I like to transfer them onto some lightly floured parchment
09:01paper.
09:03Although I'm pretty sure we're supposed to use semolina, but I didn't have any, and you
09:07might not either.
09:08But it's OK, since regular flour works fine.
09:11And that's it, we can simply keep those in the fridge until we're ready to boil, or of
09:15course freeze them on the pan, and then transfer them into a bag, and keep them frozen until
09:20we need them.
09:21But I'm starving, so I'm going to cook seven right now, which we want to do in some generously
09:26salted boiling water.
09:28And the biggest mistake people make with fresh pasta is undercooking it.
09:32All right, a lot of recipes say these are done when they float, but these are going
09:36to be floating after just about a minute, which for me is not enough time to cook that
09:40pasta dough perfectly.
09:42So I generally boil these for three minutes, which I think is ideal.
09:47And our dough is going to be cooked, but still a little bit too some.
09:51And then as far as how to finish these, that's going to be your business.
09:54I'm simply going to transfer mine into some marinara that I've heated up next to my boiling
09:59water.
10:00And once those are transferred in, we'll turn them up to the best looking side, which will
10:05be with the flat side down.
10:07And that's it, once those are thoughtfully sauced, we will transfer that onto a warm
10:11plate, and we'll finish up with a grating of parmesan cheese.
10:16And please, use the real stuff.
10:18I mean, what kind of lunatic makes homemade pasta, and then sprinkles fake parmesan on
10:22top of it?
10:24Right, that is insane.
10:26And then for a final touch, I did a pinch of freshly chopped Italian parsley.
10:30And then I grabbed a fork and spoon, and went in for the official taste.
10:35And since these are nice and small, I would normally eat a whole one in one bite.
10:39But let me try to cut this neatly in half, so I can show off the perfect filling to pasta
10:44ratio.
10:45Right, one of the things I love about agnolotti, is that you normally get a lot more filling
10:49than ravioli.
10:50And while I love homemade pasta dough, it really is, at the end of the day, just a delivery
10:55system to get the filling into our mouths.
10:58Speaking of which, I really do love this simple cheese filling we used here.
11:02But as long as it's fairly smooth, you can fill these with anything you want, including
11:06any and all meat pasta fillings.
11:09But no matter what you fill these with, as I said in the intro, these are my all-time
11:13favorite stuffed pasta, and I really do hope you give them a try soon.
11:18So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe
11:22and much more info, as usual.
11:25And as always, enjoy!