Beet Ricotta Sacchetti with Pea Shoots

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These Beet Ricotta Sacchetti feature homemade beet-infused pasta fashioned into wee parcels. The pasta gives way to a creamy whipped ricotta filling punctuated with fresh garlic and preserved lemon. After a brief stint in salted, boiling water, the sacchetti is tossed in a chilli-infused brown butter sauce and topped with crisp pea shoots. If you’re thinking “That sounds labor-intensive”, you are not wrong. But I have to tell you, these babies are well worth the effort. Plus, they freeze like a dream, so it pays to stock up. 

I realize this is a strange time to unveil what I like to call a “kitchen project” but these Beet Ricotta Sacchetti are just that. I usually reserve projects for the winter when it is blustery and frigid and cozying up next to the stove just makes good sense. But here I am at the beginning of June with the sun streaming through my windows folding tiny fuschia parcels. Oh, and I’m encouraging you to do the same. Do I have a good reason for this? Not really. But in my defense, this dish screams “spring” not “February”, so you can see the bind I’m in.

The first thing we’re going to do is roast a beet. This is the simplest thing in the world. Preheat the oven to 400°F and scrub a raw, medium-sized beet. Pierce it all over with a fork and place it in the center of a piece of tin foil. Drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt. Wrap the tinfoil tightly around the beet and pop it in the oven with a baking sheet underneath to catch any drips. Roast for one hour or until the beet is fork-tender. Unwrap and let cool.

When the beet is cool enough to handle, peel it. Quarter the beet and place it in a food processor. Add some olive oil and blitz until very smooth. Set it aside. In a large bowl whisk to combine all-purpose and semolina flour and a bit of salt. I added more all-purpose flour and less semolina than usual this time around. I like semolina-rich pasta when I’m making linguine or fettuccine. But years of trial and error have taught me that you want a little more flexibility in a pasta you intend to fill. I didn’t bust a single sacchetti using this pasta and that is a first for me. I’m thinking I will have to revisit my Agnolotti recipes and give them a little tune-up next.

Once the dry ingredients for the pasta are combined, form a well in the center. Add three egg yolks and two whole eggs. Pour in the beet puree and whisk to combine, gradually introducing the dry ingredients to the wet. When a shaggy dough begins to form ditch the whisk and the spoon and knead it with your hands until smooth. The dough will be dense but slightly tacky. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, we can tackle the whipped ricotta filling. Place the garlic and preserved lemon rind in a food processor. Blitz until they resemble mulch. Add a tub of ricotta cheese (full-fat, please, and thank you) and half a cup of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano. Turn the food processor on and stream in a quarter cup of olive oil. Continue to blitz until very silky.

Divide the rested beet dough into eight evenly-sized pieces. Roll each piece out until very thin. I rolled mine out to a number 4 on my Kitchen Aid pasta attachment. You should be able to see the outline of your hand through the piece of pasta. Take each sheet of pasta and cut a series of 3″ circles out of them using a biscuit cutter.

Transfer the whipped ricotta to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe dollops of the ricotta mixture in the center of each pasta round. Fold the pasta in half over the ricotta, pinching in the center to make a half-moon shape. Scrunch both ends toward the center to create a series of ruffles. Pinch in the center to form a money-bag-esque shape. Repeat until all of the pasta is filled. This video is a helpful guide. It’s best to work with a single sheet of pasta at a time and to keep the remaining sheets covered so they don’t dry out.

Arrange the Beet Ricotta Sacchetti on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and transfer them to the freezer. Freeze them for an hour before transferring them to a freezer bag and freezing them overnight. I like to freeze my Sacchetti before cooking them because they are less delicate to work with. But you can also cook them as quickly as you form them. Just make sure to cook them in well-salted, boiling water for three minutes. Any longer and they will be overdone and on the verge of falling apart.

While you’re waiting for the water to boil and your pasta to cook, you can start building their sauce. In a small skillet, melt a couple of pats of butter until lightly golden. Pour in some olive oil to prevent burning. Next, add some minced garlic and some crushed red pepper flakes. I went with a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes because I like a little heat. But you can reduce the amount to half a teaspoon and still get a pretty good kick.

Take your cooked sacchetti directly from their cooking liquid and add them to the skillet. Make sure the heat is low and shake the pan to toss the pasta in the sauce. Once the pasta is coated, arrange the sacchetti on a plate. Spoon some additional sauce over the pasta and garnish with fresh pea shoots and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. And that’s your pasta done!

I realize these Beet Ricotta Sacchetti are a bit of a journey but I do think it is one worth taking. And don’t forget, you can make a small army of Sacchetti in one day, freeze them, and have Sacchetti on demand all month long. Now, that’s what I call investing in yourself.

Enjoy!