Butternut squash & potato tortelli

I'm so happy to see many of you, Asian and non-Asian, celebrated the Chinese New Year on your blogs :) :) But on the new year day I had a hang-over and felt so sick. Couldn't afford on ginseng (folk remedy), I kept drinking ginger tea for a whole day, and even made myself a ginger pudding, planning to post it and show you guys how drunk I had been! But now I just want the whole episode totally over, no more booze, only goodie-goodie girl (well, let see how long I can last); allow me to start over again with this simple and rustic pasta.

I'm attracted to two different filled pasta dishes, potato and butternut squash respectively. They're both prepared in a very similar way, and both scented by the tantalizing nutmeg flavor. Since I like the color of butternut squash, and adore the texture of potato, so I combined the two. For me cooking has no rocket science, all come down to my taste and my mood... oh yeah, on that day I made the tortelli I was a bit playful; changed the pasta to a triangle shape.

Ingredients (adapted from In Nonna's Kitchen) (yield: 2 servings as main course)

• Half of the basic egg pasta
• 1 medium-small potato and same amount of butter squash, cooked*, peeled, mashed
• 1 Tbp butter
• a pinche of ground nutmeg
• a pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 Tbps grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• For topping: spoonfuls of butter, 2 tomatoes, diced, more Parmigiano-Reggiano
• * saute the butternut squash over very low heat, no water added. The filling has to be thick, wet filling will ruin the pasta

Direction:

• Roll out the pasta sheets and stop at the second-last setting. In this recipe I call for two sheets. Cover them and even keep in fridge while preparing the filling.
• Well combine potato, butternut squash, nutmeg, salt and cheese.
• Slightly flour the work table, lay a pasta sheet down, cut out circles with a 21/2-inch cookie cutter. Brush a little water around the circumference of a circle and set a teaspoon of filling, brush some water on the the circumference of the second circle, cover, press the edges together a fork. (note: always cover any pasta that you aren't working on)
• Bring a large pot of water to boil (you proceeding the topping at the same time, next step), add some salt, cook the pasta 2 - 4 minutes.
• Saute butter and tomato for 2 minutes. When the pasta's done, drain immediately, I like to toss them directly on the pan. Add cheese.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------