Plin is a type of small filled pasta, similar to a ravioli, that is traditional in Piedmont, a region in Northwestern Italy. Charles and I spent a couple days in Piedmont during our recent European vacation and I made it my mission to eat as much plin as possible. So when TripAdvisor asked me share a recipe inspired by a visit to a TripAdvisor restaurant, I knew just what I was going to make.
I created my own recipe for plin inspired by my experience eating plin at Tra Arte E Querce in Monchiero and Ristorante Garden in Pollenzo, restaurants I discovered through TripAdvisor. When I am traveling, deciding where to eat is heavily researched and I often turn to TripAdvisor to check reviews written by other travelers. TripAdvisor recently announced the Travelers’ Choice Restaurant Award Winners, which honors the top restaurants in the world based on user reviews. (Both Bavettes and Alinea in Chicago made the list). The list is a great resource for people who want to try the best of the best when traveling.
Like ravioli, plin can be filled with a wide range of ingredients. I chose to make spinach and ricotta plin topped with a sage butter sauce. While I made the dough from scratch, you could opt to save a lot of time and effort by using lasagna sheets instead. You can learn about that technique here.
Kit Graham
Yields 4
2 hrPrep Time
15 minCook Time
2 hr, 15 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- For the Dough:
- 400 grams OO Flour
- 4 Large Eggs
- For the Filling:
- 150 grams Frozen Chopped Spinach (10 ounces)
- 60 grams Whole Milk Ricotta
- 40 grams Grated Parmesan
- 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- A dash of Black Pepper
- For the Sauce:
- 4 tablespoons European Butter
- 12 Fresh Sage Leaves
Instructions
- Start by mixing up the dough. If you have a marble slab to work on, that would make clean up easier. Pour the flour into a mound, and create a well in the middle. Crack two eggs into the center. Use a fork to whisk the eggs, slowly incorporating more and more flour. After about a minute, add the remaining eggs. Use a fork to continue folding in more flour. Eventually, it will make more sense to use your hands. Pull the dough out of the flour, and knead it, slowly adding more an more flour.
- I am going to be honest, this is hard. It's a work out. You will need to knead and knead until you can eventually incorporate all the flour. Or you can skip this step by using lasagna sheets instead.
- Once you have a ball of dough, cover it with plastic wrap, making sure that there is no air between the plastic wrap and the dough. Set the dough aside.
- Then get to work on the filling. Squeeze all of the water out of the spinach. Then combine the spinach, ricotta, parmesan, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Mix until smooth.
- Now it's time to roll out your dough. I used a rolling pin to roll the dough out as much as I possibly could, until the dough was thin. I rotated the dough clockwise as I rolled it.
- To make the plin either use a piping bag or a spoon to place a small ball of filling on the edge of the dough. You want the filling to be the size of a hazelnut. Line the filling up on one edge of the dough, making sure you space it out so you can fit a finger between. Then fold the dough with the filling in to over, pinch the plin together, and cut with a pastry cutter. Watch the video - I explain what to do. It's a more visual thing, it would be hard to explain in words alone.
- Continue making plin, using up all the dough and filling.
- Then bring a pot of salt water to a boil, add the plin and cook until they float.
- While the plin cook, prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan. As soon as the butter begins to darken, add the sage. Stir the butter, submerging the sage, and letting it cook until the leaves are crisp and the butter has browned.
- Drain the plin, and drizzle the butter and sage over.
TripAdvisor is hosting a Twitter #TravelToTaste chat on October 28th at 2pm ET, and I will be participating in the conversation about food and travel. Leading up to the chat, TripAdvisor is encouraging people to spark the conversation by sharing photos of travel meals using #TravelToTaste. I am excited to see all the meals that people post using the hashtag!
I would love to hear about some of the best meals you have enjoyed while traveling in the comments!