The best recipes find you. This is one of them.
It's also one of the most requested dishes we've ever served at The Fisheries. Members ask for it so often that it earns a place on our Workers' Lunch menu at least twice a year.
Long before The Fisheries existed, one of my first careers was in the wine trade, working for a specialist importer of Italian wines. During one unforgettable trip, I was lucky enough to visit the Ca' dei Frati winery in Lombardy.
The wines were exceptional, but what has stayed with me all these years wasn't a particular bottle. It was the lunch. Course after course appeared until I felt as though I'd been rolled out of the winery like a barrel. Among all those wonderful dishes, one stood out. Years later, after trying to recreate it from memory, I finally discovered its name was Rotolo.
What fascinated me was the pasta. Softer, lighter and almost fluffy, the secret was potato folded into the dough, giving it a texture somewhere between traditional pasta and gnocchi. A small detail that transforms the finished dish.
Every time we make Rotolo at The Fisheries, I'm transported back to that table in Lombardy. More than anything, I remember the generosity of the Dal Cero family at Ca' dei Frati. The warmth. The laughter. The sense that everyone was welcome and there was always room for another plate and another glass of their delicious Lugana “I Frati”.
For us, that's what hospitality really means.
A recipe borrowed from an Italian winemaker and recreated in a kitchen in Hackney, it has become something of a Fisheries institution. We hope you'll make it at home, gather a few people around your table and enjoy it as much as we do.
If you'd like to find out more about the wines of Ca' dei Frati, they're imported into the UK by Liberty Wines.
Serves 6
Having a pasta roller makes this easier but you can also just use a rolling pin.
For the Pasta sheets
- 250g 00 Flour
- 75g potato riced
- 1 medium egg
- 1 egg yolk
- Pinch salt
- Bowl of cold water
- Semolina flour, for dusting.
Tomato sauce
- 3 x 400g tins of best quality plum tomatoes
- 500ml Olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 x Rosemary sprigs
- 3 x Thyme sprigs
Filling
- 500g frozen spinach defrosted and wrung.
- 375g ricotta
- 250g grated mature cheddar (or 50% cheddar and 50% Grano Padano or Parmasan)
- 1 nutmeg
- Fresh Oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Pinch Chili flakes
- Zest from 1 lemon
The Recipe:
- Make the pasta dough. Pour the flour and riced potato onto a surface and mix together until the potato is absorbed into the flour. Then create a well in the middle of the mixture. Add the eggs to the well and lightly beat with a fork until the yolk and whites are combined. Then gradually pull in the flour from the edges. Once combined, start to knead the dough until the texture becomes smooth, about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic, then wrap with cling film refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Start the tomato sauce by putting the olive oil and tomatoes in a pan. Roughly crush the whole plum tomatoes with your hands directly into the ban. Bring to a low simmer and add the garlic and herbs. Cook for at least an hour. The sauce will take on a glossy texture when ready, with the oil and tomatoes completely emulsified together.
- Make the filling by combining all the ingredients and mixing together.
- Take the pasta dough from the fridge. Dust your work surface with semolina flour and roll into a long sheet roughly 20cm wide, until about 2 to 3mm thick. Dust again with semolina flour.
- Spread the filling in a neat line along one long edge of the pasta. Roll the pasta tightly around the filling, like a long Swiss roll, sealing the edge with a little water if necessary.
- Once your tomato sauce is cooked, remove the herb stalks and crush the garlic into the sauce using a fork. Pour the sauce into a baking dish.
- Cut the pasta roll into 18 pieces (3 pieces a person). You can go thicker and have less pieces. Put these side by side in the baking dish so that the pasta is touching each other and the filling is pointing upwards. The rotolo should be partially submerged in the tomato sauce.
- Cook in an oven at 175C for 30 minutes and then rest for 10 minutes. Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil and serve with freshly grated Parmesan, if you like.
Note: Don't worry if your Rotolo isn't perfect. It never is. The beauty of this dish is that it looks wonderfully rustic, and once it's baked in the tomato sauce nobody will know if every roll is exactly the same. That's part of its charm.
Enjoy!
