Tortellini with ham and cheese sauce

This time I cooked a dish not in the usual way on the hob but in a cooker.

It is a Vorwerk Thermomix TM31. Not the newest model, that is the TM5, but an upgrade for the one I used for 16 years, the TM21.

This one has a wider pot with 2 liters instead of 1,8 liters and a nice  new addition, it can run left, so you stir the contents with a blunt knife and not make a mush out of everything. For years I loved all the creamy soups that came out of my TM21, because the blender was in constant move. Now I can cook soups without make a cream out of them. And I can cook other things that didn´t work in the old one. It is a whole new challenge for me.

I made a Bolognese sauce this week and today a creamy ham and cheese sauce with warmed through fresh tortellini, without destroying them. And it worked!

recipe:
400 g shop bought fresh tortellini
40 g butter
40 g flour
250 g chicken stock
250 g milk
100 g double cream
120 g middle old Gouda cheese
100 g cooked ham
4 sage leaves
1 1 /2 tsp Zatar
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
a pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp  pepper
2 tsp lemon or lime juice
30 ml Noilly Prat

Start with the cheese. Cut it into rough cubes and place that in the TM31, use the scale  for 120 g, close it and use
8 seconds at speed 8 fill it into a bowl and clean the pot.

Use the scale and weight 40 g butter into the pot, close it and
for 3 minutes at 100 C speed 1

Use the scale and get 40 g flour to the butter
for 3 minutes at 100 C speed 1
make a roux and use the spatula at the end to get the rest of the flour down, give it 30 seconds more.

Add milk, broth, cream and all the seasoning, close the lid and
use 6 min at 90 C speed 3

Add the cheese and the ham and push it down with the spatula
use 3 minutes, LEFT RUN,   90 C  slow stir speed

Add the tortellini and push them down again with the spatula
use 4 minutes, LEFT RUN 100 C slow stir speed

Top with some fresh herbs and enjoy!