How to Make Flour + Water Beet Cansonsei with Poppy Seeds

Another pasta? Yeah I know, slight obsession.

This one intrigued me because I had never really worked with fresh beets until this week, let alone in a pasta. Word of warning, they are not the easiest to work with. Red beets stain literally everything, they are not as easy to peel as advertised, and it’s just a messy process. The end result is impressive, but just a heads up, try not to get frustrated, and your hands might be red for a few hours but it washes out.

So a beet stuffed pasta? Beets have never been my favorite, in fact I have usually avoided them. In the past they just kind of taste like dirt, but what I have been finding out about most vegetables, if they don’t taste great, they probably we not prepared great. Vegetables need to be treated with the same proper care as you would with a meat, and will be rewarded with the end result.

Like with most of the Flour + Water recipes, you can substitute the fresh pasta, in this case, with any cheese stuffed pasta and just make the sauce.

Cookbook – Flour + Water

Ingredients –

Filling –

Baby Beets – 6 to 7, all a little smaller than a golf ball
Olive oil
Salt
Bay Leaves – 2
Thyme springs – 4
Ricotta cheese – 1 cup
Fresh Parmesan – 1/2 cup
Salt
Black Pepper

Dough –

Flour + Water Rav Dough

Sauce –

1/2 cup unsalted butter
Salt
Fresh Parmesan for grating
Poppy seeds
Paper thin shaved beets to finish (very optional, I did not include in mine)

Tools –

Pasta roller
Baking pan or sheet
Food processor
Fluted pasta wheel cutter
Pasta drying rack

Step 1 – Make the dough

Follow the Flour + Water Rav Dough recipe

Step 2 – Make the Filling

In a small roasting pan, drizzle the beets with olive oil. Add a generous pinch of salt, the thyme bay leaves, and toss to combine. Cover with aluminum foil and roast until tender, about 45 minutes. When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them.

Feel free to wear plastic gloves for peeling, it is a messy affair. The skin does not come off as easy as it should either, so I used a pairing knife for the most part, working top down to cut off a small section of the skin.

Place the beets in a food processor, puree with a small amount of water to achieve a smooth consistency. In a large bowl, combine the puree, ricotta, and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Step 3 – Make the Cansonsei

Roll out the dough like suggested in the Rav dough recipe until the dough is transparent.

With a straight wheel or a knife, cut the rolled out dough long ways in half, into two, 3 inch wide strips.

Place a small amount of filling in the middle of the dough, leaving about an inch in between each one. Gently fold the dough all the way over to completely cover the filling, bring the two edges together. Seal only the top of the pasta on the edge.

To form the cansonsei, start on the right side of one strip, press down along the side with your index finger, sealing the pasta and pushing out all the air. Make sure the right side, top, and left are all sealed. Move on to the next one.

When each piece is sealed, cut long ways across the whole piece of dough with a fluted cutter. Then to finish and make each individual piece, cut in between each one with the fluted cutter.

To form the final shape of the Cansonsei, fold the corners close to each other and set aside on a drying rack.

Step 4 – Make the sauce and finish

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Add one cup of pasta water to the pan, add the butter. Swirl or whisk to create an emulsion. Once the pasta is cooked about 80% (about 2 minutes), drain and add the pasta to the sauce, continue to swirl. Season with salt, when the sauce has fully coated each cansonsei, remove from heat.

Divide the pasta, sprinkle poppy seeds over all of the pasta, and grate fresh parmesan over all of the pasta. Finish with shaved beets if you so desire.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

And for the ratings –

Difficulty of ingredients to find – 3/5 stars – a normal trip to the store should work
Perceived difficulty going into the recipe – 4/5 stars – stuffed pasta with beets can get messy
Difficulty after recipe- 4/5 stars – stuffed pasta with beets can get messy
Time taken – 5/5 stars – probably a little more than 4 hours
Taste – 4.5/5 stars – so so good, not sure about the poppy seeds though
Make again? 4/5 stars – yeah I definitely would