Baked Tortellini Souffle For An Indulgent Dinner Party

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Baked tortellini souffle is the ultimate fancy dish you can serve for a special occasion. Crunchy, creamy, and exquisite, everyone will ask for more. Raise your culinary skills to a higher level and give it a try, it is not that difficult to make.

Jump to:

• Farm fresh eggs for souffle
• Raising chickens in your backyard
• Challange of making a souffle
• Choosing the tortellini
• Making the bake tortellini souffle
• 20 rules to properly cook pasta
• How to serve the Tortellini souffle
• 📋Baked Tortellini Souffle

Farm fresh eggs for souffle

Souffle is a baked French dish made with whipped eggs. The yolks are separated from the whites and the whites are whipped to make the dish light and foamy. A souffle can be savory as well as sweet.

Eggs are the main component of this recipe, so the quality of the eggs will really make a difference to the final dish. I do recommend to buy fresh farm free-range eggs.

For me, it was an opportunity to use the first fresh eggs laid by my own chickens.

Raising chickens in your backyard

Yes, I admit, I was among those fools who bought 2 chickens during the lock-down. Do I regret it? Not yet, and I do have an explanation in my defense. My sister Gilda, the Vet, was locked down with us. So what better opportunity to be guided into this new adventure of raising your own chickens in the backyard? A dream come true!

So these are the few things I learned so far, and if you are thinking of raising your own chicken, this is a good place to start:

• Chickens will lay eggs almost every day from the age of 5 to 6 months to 2 years. Best to buy young chickens.
• You need to choose a breed that produces eggs regularly, in Italy the best breed for eggs is called "Livornesi". Check with the breeder before you buy them.
• Chickens are best in pair, do not buy only one chicken. So sad to be alone!
• Feeding and drinking troughs should be hanged otherwise the chicken will quickly fill them with dirt from the digging. Buy them large enough so they can hold food and water for a few days but you still need to check them every day.

• Chicken coop are not expensive, make sure you get a solid one. I bought mine from eBay and it was better quality than the one I saw in the shops.
• Chicken coops usually have a little fenced outdoor area which is open on the bottom. We tied a wide metal net on the bottom of the cage to avoid fox and cats to dig under and catch the chickens. Make sure it is wide as chickens need to dig.
• We also bought a large metal cage for them to run around the garden safely, we move it regularly so they can dig around in different areas.
• At night the chicken will enter into their little house and sleep on the perch. Keep the door closed for the night and open it at dawn.
• One mistake I made was to buy a coop without considering an automatic door opener. I am a morning person so letting them out at dawn is not a problem, but during the summer they are still up and about way passed my bedtime.

• Buy chicken food that is specific for egg production, add also some oyster shells which are sold separately, it helps to reinforce the eggshell.
• Chickens will eat leftovers from the vegetable cleaning, and love strawberries sepals. They will eat your weeds, especially Dandelion and Vetch, bugs, worms but also the salad in your vegetable patch.
• As we have 2 dogs, we started to leave the chickens to go around free in the garden only under our supervision and taught the dogs not to chase after the chickens. After a few pecks on the nose, they learned to respect them and chase only the pigeons.

Challange of making a souffle

Making a souffle may sound challenging but if you follow some simple rules you will find it very easy to make.

• The secret of a good souffle is to whip the egg white very firmly and mix it to the other ingredients at the end, very gently to make sure the foam of the egg whites remains firm.
• Make sure your egg whites are at room temperature before you whip them. If you have your own farm free-range eggs, they don't need to be stored in the fridge.
• Don't open the oven while the souffle is cooking.
• To make sure the souffle is fully cooked in the center, pierce it with a metal stick and it should come out clean.

To bake the souffle you need to use a ceramic pan (affiliate link) with high border: 9 inch -22 cm of diameter and 2 quart - 2 liters capacity. If you are preparing it for a dinner party, make sure your pan is presentable as you will be bringing it to the table.

Choosing the tortellini

The type of tortellini you use is very important. They cannot be too big as they will be too heavy for the egg whites to sustain them while cooking. Their regular cooking time should be at least 8 to 10 minutes.

Since the tortellini need to bake again in the oven, if the tortellini pasta dough is too thin they will overcook and break.

I usually buy the dried Tortellini pasta from Barilla (amazon affiliate link), my boys like the one with prosciutto and Parmigiano, but you can also find Tortellini with cheese only.

If you prefer, you can use fresh tortellini or ravioli, just make sure the pasta dough is thick enough and the cooking time adequate for baking.

Making the bake tortellini souffle

Preparing the tortellini

1. In a pot of salted boiling water, precook the tortellini for 3 minutes less then what instructed in the package (if their required cooking time is 10 minutes, boil for 7 minutes only)
2. Drain them and immediately mix them with 1 tbsp of butter to keep them from sticking to each other.
3. Stir until the butter is melted.

Making Béchamel: White Roux

1. Stir for 1 or 2 minutes the flour and the butter in a pan over low heat with a wooden spoon to create a white roux.
2. Remove from the heat and gradually add the warm milk making sure no lumps are formed.
3. Put back on the heat and bring to boil stirring constantly.
4. Lower the heat and keep stirring, till it reaches the right consistency.
5. Add salt and nutmeg at the end.
6. Let the bechamel cool down at room temperature

Preparing the souffle batter

1. Once the bechamel is at room temperature add the egg yolks one at the time and stir until they are completely combined
2. Add the heavy cream
3. Add the parmesan
4. Stir until the batter is homogeneous
5. Add the tortellini
6. and mix thoroughly

Making and mixing the whipped egg whites

1. Pour the 4 egg whites into a bowl, make sure they are at room temperature
2. Whip the egg whites until they form a thick and frosty foam
3. Pour the egg whites into the souffle batter with the tortellini
4. Mix very gently to keep the frosting stable
5. Pour the mix into a souffle baking pan
6. Bake in a hot oven for 50 minutes at 355 F - 180 C
7. To make sure the souffle is fully cooked in the center, pierce it with a metal stick and it should come out clean.
8. Serve hot.

20 rules to properly cook pasta

If you are a novice cook, here are some important points you need to know to properly cook pasta:

1. Pasta should be boiled in salted water, adding salt after doesn't work
2. Add the salt as soon as you put the pan with water on the heat, so you don't forget
3. If you don't remember if you added salt to the water, taste the water
4. Use 1 tbsp of salt per 4 quarts - 4 liters of water which should be enough for 1lb - 500 gr of pasta
5. Make sure the pot is large enough so the water doesn't overflow once you put in the pasta
6. If you put the lid on the pan, the water will get to the boiling point faster
7. Do not add oil to the water
8. The water should be boiling hot before you put the pasta in
9. Use a good pasta brand. My favorites are (in this order): Rummo, Garofalo, De Cecco. Barilla is my least favorite one but better than any other unknown brands
10. When you add the pasta, the water may stop boiling as the pasta lowers the water temperature. Put the lid on the pan until the water starts boiling again
11. Once the water boils remove the lid otherwise the foam will overflow from the pan
12. Stir the pasta from time to time
13. Keep the heat high so the water boils all the time
14. Always cook the pasta 1 minute less than what is written on the pasta box
15. Taste the pasta and drain immediately when "Al Dente" meaning still firm and chunky
16. Never leave the pasta floating in the water once it is cooked!!!!!
17. As soon as the pasta is drained, season immediately and stir.
18. If for whatever reason the seasoning is not ready, season the pasta with some extra virgin olive oil and stir
19. Once the pasta is ready and seasoned, it has to be served and eaten immediately
20. No parmesan in pasta with seafood, you can sprinkle toasted grated breadcrumbs or almonds

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How to serve the Tortellini souffle

This souffle is a quite filling and satisfying dish, it will be your masterpiece for a dinner with guests. You don't need anything fancy or rich to serve with it, just some light vegetables cooked very simply and without complicated sauce.

A mix of steam vegetables will do, like zucchini, carrots or broccoli. You can simply steam your vegetables in a steamer, pressure pan or microwave. You can check how I prepare the steamed zucchini in the recipe: baked salmon with steamed zucchini.

With the tortellini souffle, you can also serve a mix of grilled vegetables or a simple salad.

For dessert, serve something fruity like a Pear crumble or a Tarte Tatin to contrast the richness of the main dish. To finish a homemade liqueur to digest and cleanse: Limoncello, orange Curacao, Nocino, Chocolate liqueur, so many to choose from.

If you are making this baked tortellini souffle, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.