Agnolotti with Brown Butter and Sage

Step 1

Brown the meat in the olive oil, removing the pieces as they brown. Add the chopped carrot, celery and onion and saute this until translucent. Add the bay leaves, sherry and broth and return the squirrel pieces to the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the meat wants to fall off the bones.

Step 2

Fish out the meat and debone it. Chop roughly and put the meat into a food processor. Pulse it into an almost-paste. Let it cool in a bowl. Once the meat is cool, add all the remaining filling ingredients and mix well.

Step 3

While the meat is cooking, make the pasta dough. Mix all the pasta ingredients together in a bowl and knead well for about 5 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and let the dough sit an hour to hydrate, or vacuum seal and it'll hydrate immediately.

Step 4

Once the dough has hydrated and the filling is ready, cut the pasta into five pieces. Keep all but the piece you are working on wrapped in plastic so it doesn't dry out.

Step 5

Roll out the pasta into long, thin rectangles. On my Atlas pasta roller, I roll to No. 7, which is two settings away from the thinnest, which is No. That'll give you an idea how thin to roll it.

Step 6

Place a teaspoon of filling at intervals on the pasta sheet. Remember you are folding over this sheet, so put the filling about halfway down the sheet. Fold the sheet over the filling. Using the thumb and forefinger of both hands, pinch the pasta over the filling to seal, pushing out all the air.

Step 7

Use a ravioli cutter to even out the edge of the whole sheet where the top and bottom come together. Discard that little bit of pasta. Use the same ravioli roller to separate each agnolotto. Set them on a baking sheet dusted with semolina flour or corn meal. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Step 8

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add enough salt to make the water taste salty. Boil the agnolotti until they float, and then 1 minute more.

Step 9

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large pan, ideally non-stick. Add the sage and toasted pine nuts and let this fry over medium heat. When the agnolotti are cooked, move them to this pan, toss to coat with the sage brown butter and pine nuts, and serve at once.