hello this is chef john from food wishes.com with easy crab
tortellini that's right i'm going to show you a
super easy super simple method for making stuffed pasta using wonton
wrappers which reminds me if you'd rather call
these crab wontons or crab dumplings go ahead
these are really all the same thing but i went with tortellini because it has a
couple extra syllables so i thought it would be easier to rhyme
with but no matter what you call them this is definitely something you want in
your bag of culinary tricks and to get started the first thing we'll
need to do is mix up this very easy filling
which is going to start with exactly seven saltine crackers
which we will crush up nice and fine with our fingers
and if you want to use about the same amount of bread crumbs with maybe a
pinch of salt that would also work but i just find for whatever reason the
saltines work out a little better and then to that we will add one large
beaden egg as well as a couple spoons of mascarpone cheese
which is nothing more than an extra rich italian cream cheese
and if you can't find it regular cream cheese will work we will also want to
add a little touch of dijon mustard along with a few dashes of
worcestershire sauce and that's it once everything's in there we'll go ahead and
take a spoon and give this a mix and as you might know i like to start
stirring at one camera angle and then i'll move the camera and finish the shot
with a different angle well for reasons i don't have time to
get into that second shot didn't happen but that's okay nothing a little flip
over transition can't fix oh yeah there we go and then once that's
mixed we'll go ahead and let that sit for five minutes
just to give those crumbs a little head start absorbing the moisture
before we add in our very very well-drained crab meat
and i use two different kinds some very affordable standard lump crab meat from
the grocery store plus the same amount of some much nicer
much more expensive dungeness crab meat in this way we can save a little money
and still tell people the fillings made out of dungeness
oh yeah that's perfectly legal and ethical
and then we'll finish this up with a little touch of old bay
a pinch of salt a couple shakes of cayenne
and then if you have some and i did a little bit of minced jalapeno pepper
which is just a fantastic pairing with crab then we'll grab our spoon and give
this a mix until it's just combined and we could use this right now if we
had to but for some possibly better results
let's go ahead and wrap it up and pop it in the fridge for about an hour
before we try to stuff our tortellini okay i think it's going to be easier to
work with plus we give it a little bit of time for
those flavors to develop and who among us does not enjoy develop flavors
so that's what i did and then about an hour later i moved into final production
and for that we're going to need some of these some ready to use wonton wrappers
from the store so soft so supple so thin and i find
very easy to work with and very important once you open the
package you want to keep it just barely damp towel over the top so they don't
dry out and what we'll do is go ahead and place
one down and then we'll paint a tiny bit of water with the tip of our finger
on the two edges facing away from us right not too much just enough to
moisten and then once that's been accomplished
we'll go ahead and place down one tablespoon of our filling
right in the center and then we will just spread it out a little bit
and then the first maneuver here is to fold this over so that our two points
line up first and then once that center spot is
pressed together we can work our way down the sides
pressing ceiling and pushing out any air to basically form a triangle
and then once we've somehow managed that we will use one of our fingers to push
right into the center of that long flat side
or as our geometry teacher would call it the hypotenuse
and then once we have that basic shape formed we'll go ahead and moisten each
of those tips referred to in the tortellini business's
wings and with a finger placed and slightly pushing in the middle
we'll go ahead and seal those together pressing them nice and tight
and if everything goes according to plan that dough on the opposite side will
kind of fold up to form a collar and that's it it's really not that hard
except i'm never quite sure what to do with that part once it's sealed
i mean should i fold it down or fold it up and tuck it in or just leave it as
is i don't know and to be honest it really doesn't matter
since once these are boiled and sauced they're gonna look amazing
so let me go ahead and show you one more while i also give you the extremely
obvious info that you could use this technique to
stuff these with whatever you want so please feel free to adapt these to
your tastes i mean you are after all the ray boom boom mancini
of your easy cheater tortellini and speaking of boxing
these square wrappers work just fine but if you can get the round ones those do
produce a more traditional tortellini shape
but either way the folding is basically the same so i went ahead and folded up
seven of those since i'm just filming one portion and
then because these things are going to cook so fast
before we boil them we need to have whatever sauce we're using ready
which for me is going to be a very simple but delicious cream sauce
which is going to start with some creme fraiche or some of you pronounce it
cream fresh and we'll place that over medium heat
and then to that we will also add a touch of paprika
which is a little bit for flavor but mostly to warm up the color of the sauce
a little we'll also do a little bit of freshly
grated lemon zest as well as a little pinch of salt and
then i like to thin it out just a little bit with a touch of our pasta water
all right just a little splash and then all we're going to do here is wait for
that crumb fresh to melt and for this mixture to heat through and
then as soon as it does and it's just about to start to simmer
we can go ahead and turn it off since it's now ready to accept our
cooked tortellini which are only going to take a minute
literally so we'll go ahead and grab those and carefully transfer them into
some well-salted boiling water and we'll give those a very gentle stir
with our strainer to make sure they're not sticking to the bottom
and then like i said we're only going to cook these for about 60 seconds
which during that time they may or may not float to the surface
which is how some people will tell you they're done but depending on the
filling that doesn't always happen so after just about a minute i'm going
to go ahead and fish those out and we'll transfer those into our sauce
and we'll crank our heat to medium-high and basically as soon as our sauce
starts simmering and everything is heated through
these are pretty much ready to serve and as this comes up to temple gently stir
and baste and the cooking time might seem too
quick but those wonton wrappers are super thin
and cook really fast plus other than the egg everything in the filling is cooked
so really as soon as those are heated through they're okay to serve
and then what we'll do once that happens and our sauce is simmering is turn off
the heat and we'll stir in some fresh dill or the
crab friendly herb of your choice okay terrigan would also be very nice
and that's it once our fresh herb has been stirred in
and we of course have checked for seasoning we can go ahead and plate that
up and like all cream sauces they
definitely thicken up once they hit the plate and start to cool
so two things make sure your plate is warm and your sauce is not overly
reduced when you go ahead and plate it oh and i should mention if you want to
use regular cream instead of creme fraiche go ahead
it'll basically work exactly the same except it won't have that delicious
tangy flavor although you could sneak in a few drops
of lemon juice to increase the acidity but anyway you'll figure it out and then
once i had that plated and sauced i finished up with a little more fresh
dill as well as one last sprinkling of cayenne
to make these look a little crabbier and that's it our super easy cheater method
for crab tortellini are ready to enjoy and not to insult your pasta or wonton
dough making skills but besides being a lot less work one of
the great things about these wrappers is that they're so nice and thin so it
really does make for a beautifully tender and delicate dumpling
but that was just one part of why these were so incredible right the other
reason is i just love this crab filling which by the way was based on our highly
regarded crab cake recipe so instead of being like 50 crab 50
cheese this is or at least seems like almost
all crab meat or as the dj once said all killer no
filler i mean come on look at all that crab so
i just absolutely loved how these came out
and sure if you're feeling less adventurous and you'd rather just fold
them over and cook them as triangles that's okay
but the magic of this tortellini shape also known as wonton shape
is that it does a great job of catching and holding onto all that delicious
sauce so for a little extra work it really
does elevate the experience but whether you make these as shown or
you do your own cheater method of the cheater method
either way i really do hope you give these a try soon
so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts
a printable written recipe and much more info as usual
and as always enjoy
you