Anolini in Broth

This is a classic dish from the 12th century, born in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Basically a cheese-stuffed pasta ladled into rich broth or brodo, anolini is divine and simple.

This recipe is a combo of Frank Prisinzano’s anolini and my very own brain invention. Instead of ricotta cheese, I made cashew cheese with spinach to trick my body into consuming more greens. The end result was delicious and nourishing and the carb monster in me didn't even notice that it was packed with popeye vitamins.

MAKES: 4 meals

TAKES: 1-2 hours depending on how much of a slowpoke you are

INGREDIENTS

• 1 batch of freshly made pasta, rolled out into lasagna style sheets (click here for homemade pasta recipe)

• 1 bunch of spinach, blanched, squeezed and blended.

• 1 cup of cashew cheese (or ricotta if you can’t be effed to make cashew cheese)

• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (for the cashew cheese)

• A squeeze of lemon juice

• 1 garlic clove (for the cashew cheese)

• Pinch of salt (for the cashew cheese)

• Pinch of pepper (for the cashew cheese)

• Pinch of nutmeg (for the cashew cheese)

• 3-4 cups of broth of choice (I prefer a basic clear chicken broth for this)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. First make the cashew cheese. Take 1 cup or a large handful of cashews and soak for a couple of hours. Drain, rinse and chuck the cashews into a blender. Add in nutritional yeast, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg and blanched and squeezed spinach.

2. Blend this until smooth and then spoon into a piping bag or in my case a ziplock bag that has one corner cut off. This is how you will pipe your new cashew cheese spinach mixture onto your pasta.

3. Next, make your little pasta darlings that’ll eventually swim in broth. I do Frank’s method but if you want an alternative method, check out Pasta Grannies method of making the anolini bundles.

4. Once your anolini is made, warm up your broth.

5. In a separate pot, boil up some salted water and dunk those anolini in. Once they've had a good little swim and start to float, they’re ready to be scooped out and placed right into a warm broth bath.

6. Eat right away, preferably paired with a nice little jazzy bottle of red wine.