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Culurgiones

Prepare a tray with coarse semolina for your finished shapes. You will need a plain pastry ring cutter about 7–8cm/2¾–3¼in in diameter – any smaller than this makes it tricky to work with. I’d avoid a fluted cutter, so if that’s all you have, try using a beer glass to cut the circles out instead, as your circles need a clean edge.

  • Cut roughly a quarter from your disc of pasta dough, keeping the rest wrapped until you’re ready to use it. Flatten the dough a little and guide it through the widest setting on your pasta machine twice (the widest setting on my machine is 0). Continue rolling to setting 5 on your pasta machine (full rolling instructions can be found here).
  • Your dough should be pliable but not too moist or it will stick to your fingers as you pinch the shapes together. If it needs to be a little drier, dust with semolina, fold the sheet over and roll again.
  • Using the ring cutter, cut discs in the sheet of pasta, then lift and remove the excess dough and roll it into a rough ball. Cover this with clingfilm (plastic wrap) so that you can roll it out again later.
  • Scoop a tablespoon of filling and roughly shape it in your hands so that it resembles a cocktail sausage – this helps to compress the filling a little and makes it easier to shape each dumpling. Place the filling in the centre of a circle of dough.
  • Now pick up the dough in your left hand (or whichever hand you prefer, keeping your other hand for the shaping). Fold the dough over, like a taco, cradling it in your palm between your thumb and forefingers.
  • Working from one end of the dough to the other, push in and pinch the edges together, forming a little pleat. Work along the edge, pleating as you go. Some of the filling will be pushed out at the open end, but that’s fine.
  • Once you’ve reached the end of the dumpling, simply squeeze to seal the pleats together and form a neat little tip.
  • Place the dumpling on the dusted tray and continue to shape the rest of the dough. The scraps you rolled into a ball will need to be rolled through the pasta machine again to give you a fresh, smooth sheet to work with.