Mushroom Tortellini

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Mushroom tortellini, little packets of love, are one of the finest expressions of care and calm that I know of. Pureed mushrooms in little packets of pasta, served with more mushrooms, peas, some green onions — and lots of butter. 

A plate of mushroom tortellini
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

If your mind is in the wrong place, making tortellini at home can be tedious, infuriating. Maddening. If you are an impatient person, if you like to text while driving, multi-task from dawn to dusk, “bang things out,” don’t make this pasta.

Making mushroom tortellini requires a sense of peace, zen or mental calmness that doesn’t necessarily require a quiet room, but it helps. It’s a great weekend project, or for a special date night.

Folding the dough requires precise, repetitive movement with delicate, small pieces of pasta dough. If you’ve never made tortellini before, start with their larger cousins, tortelli. They are typically twice the size of the tortellini you see in the picture above. Easier for beginners.

Real tortellini are tiny. I am not a big man, but I am normal-sized, which makes me almost too big to make this little pasta. I will often fold them over my pinkie. The larger tortelli you can fold over your forefinger.

Hank Shaw folding a mushroom tortellino
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Nevertheless, mushroom tortellini are a treat well worth the effort. Plus, I know a trick to save a full hour’s worth of time when making the dough; see the recipe card for that.

And when you’re done, you can freeze your finished tortellini and they’ll keep for a couple months, so later you can eat them at a moment’s notice.

Tortellini dough is simple, just water and flour and eggs — and if you want a quick hack for first timers, you can use little wonton wrappers. You’ll find them typically in the produce section of the supermarket; they’re always sold refrigerated or frozen.

The real magic of tortellini is in the filling.

lots of mushroom tortellini
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Mushroom tortellini exist in Italy, using any number of mushrooms, usually wild. That’s what I do here. I use morels when in season (thus the picture), but really almost any edible mushroom works here, from store-bought shiitakes to porcini, chanterelles, oysters, you name it.

You’re going to cook and almost puree the mushrooms anyway, so flavor is key here. That’s why I suggest shiitakes over regular button mushrooms — they have more flavor.

This rendition of mushroom tortellini is pretty straightforward. I did make my own ricotta cheese, using this recipe, but only because I felt like it. Store-bought, whole milk ricotta is perfectly fine.

When you serve your mushroom tortellini, go simple.

A lot of times I’ll just do broth, or fresh herbs and butter, or olive oil and black pepper, maybe a splash of lemon juice. In this case, I used a bunch of springtime ingredients, cooked very simply and tossed with the pasta. And yeah, I had to add some fresh mushrooms into the mix. Can you blame me?

If you wanted to go all out, try serving mushroom tortellini sauced with a mushroom ragu.

If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.

A plate of mushroom tortellini
5 from 7 votes

Mushroom Tortellini

While I like this recipe with morels or porcini, you could use any wild or cultivated mushroom for these tortellini. Use the same mushroom for the final dish that you use in the pasta filling. Once the pasta is made, this dish comes together very quickly.
Course: Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 people
Author: Hank Shaw
Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Equipment

  • 1 Pasta roller (I use an Atlas)

Ingredients 

PASTA DOUGH

  • 10 ounces all-purpose flour, about 2 cups
  • 2 eggs, beaten with 1 ounce of water, about 1/4 cup

FILLING

  • 1 ounce dried mushrooms, or 2 cups (1/2 pound) fresh, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
  • Black pepper
  • 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta

TO SERVE

  • 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
  • 3 to 6 wild onions or green onions, white parts, chopped
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, divided
  • 1 cup small peas
  • 1/2 cup soaking water from mushrooms (see recipe)
  • Green parts of the wild onions, sliced into 2-inch pieces
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions 

  • Submerge the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of warm water and set aside.
  • To make the pasta dough, lightly beat the eggs and water together. Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the beaten eggs and, using one finger, incorporate the flour and the eggs. When you have a shaggy mass, start kneading the dough, either in the bowl or on a clean work surface. Knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for at least an hour, or in the fridge up to overnight. TIP: If you have a vacuum sealer, seal the dough in a bag. It will instantly hydrate the dough and you need not wait the hour.
  • To make the filling, gently lift the mushrooms out of the soaking water and squeeze them dry. Chop finely. Set them in a large sauté pan and turn the heat to high. When the mushrooms start sizzling, add the butter. Toss to combine and sauté until they begin to brown. Add the garlic, caraway seeds, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook another minute. Turn off the heat and let everything cool.
  • While you are waiting, strain the mushroom soaking water through a paper towel and then boil it down until it's about 1/2 cup. Save it for later.
  • When the mushroom mixture has cooled to room temperature, put it into a food processor or blender with the ricotta and buzz it to combine. You want the filling to be pretty smooth because you will be using it by the half-teaspoon — large chunks will tear the pasta. Put the filling into a plastic freezer bag and shove it to one corner. Snip off the corner of the bag so you can squeeze out a little filling at a time — if you have a piping bag, use that.
  • Cut your pasta dough into 6 equal pieces. Keep all of them covered in the plastic wrap until you need them. Roll out one piece very thin — I use the second-to-thinnest setting on my Atlas pasta maker. Lay the pasta sheet on a clean work surface (I use a maple board) and use something to cut out squares or circles. I use a round pastry cutter about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches wide. You want your tortellini to be small, so use something no larger than 2 inches across.
  • Squeeze a little filling into the center of the circle or square. How much? You'll get the hang of it soon enough, but remember that you will need about 1/4 inch all the way around the filling for the tortellino to seal correctly. It's better to have too little filling than too much.
  • Fold the pasta over itself to make a tiny half moon. Seal the edges. You might need to dip your finger into a little water to do this if your pasta has dried out too much. (You can stop here if you want, and while they will not be tortellini, they will still be tasty.) Now fold the half moon over on itself and seal the ends of the half moon. You now have a tortellino. Repeat with the remaining dough. It takes time, but you get into a zen state soon enough. Set each finished tortellino on a baking sheet that's been dusted with semolina flour or cornmeal. Don't pile them up on each other, or they will stick and become a glob.
  • When your tortellini are done, you will need to cook them that day or freeze them. Filled pasta does not do well in the fridge for more than a day. They can sit out a couple hours while you make them, though.
  • To finish the dish, boil some water and then salt it well. Take a sauté pan and set it over high heat. Add the fresh mushrooms and white parts of the onion and let them sear until the miushrooms give up their water. Add 3 tablespoons of butter and sauté until the mushrooms and onions begin to brown. Salt them while they are cooking. Add the peas and the mushroom soaking water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the green parts of the wild onions. Grind some black pepper over everything.
  • Boil the tortellini for 2 to 3 minutes, or 30 seconds after they float to the surface. Add the to the sauté pan, toss to combine and serve at once.

Notes

You can use any fresh mushroom you like here, not just morels. 
If you’re new to making pasta dough, start with premade wonton wrappers, which are sold refrigerated in many supermarkets. 

Keys to Success

  • If you want to break up the labor, you can make the filling up to a day ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. You can store the dough a day in the fridge, too. Let it come to room temperature for an hour or so before working with it if you do. 
  • While I do love the accompaniments to these tortellini, you can also serve them with an alfredo or other cream sauce, a thin, meatless tomato sauce like marinara, or simply with butter, black pepper and sage. 
  • If you want to freeze your tortellini, do so on a baking sheet. When they are fully frozen, transfer to a freezer bag. Once made, they will keep, frozen, for about 2 months before deteriorating; they get brittle.

Nutrition

Calories: 396kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 100mg | Sodium: 45mg | Potassium: 356mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 903IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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10 Comments

  1. Can’t wait to make this dish. The idea of serving the pasta with a mushroom ragu is a great one. Multiple types of mushrooms will make this more interesting and I plan to enjoy it with a piece of crusty homemade sourdough bread.

  2. Hi,Planning to head to the mountains this weekend (sierras) and look for morels. Got the elevation and know the fires, any clues to general area you are hunting? Thanks and I am always open to a reply via email
    PS. the pasta looks killer!

  3. These look great!! I guess I know what im doing with all the left over mushroom pâté I have.

    BTW I am a big fan of your site. As a fellow SacramentoArean I enjoy seeing your foraging exploits.

  4. Love this site I’m so glad I subscribed to your site. Love all the receipes having to do with outdoor hunting and mushrooms etc. I wish there were more like you. Thank you, Vickie

  5. Any tips for cleaning the sand out of fresh morels? I can never get the grittiness to go away.

    1. Yep. I usually float them in a bowl of cool water. Shake them around in the water and then use your hands or a salad spinner to get the grit out. Works for me.

      1. I’m definitely going to try this recipe! Also, good advice on cleaning morels. A lot of us were taught never to wash mushrooms, apparently forgetting that they get rained on regularly. The salad spinner does a great job!