Steal This Recipe® Sweet Potato Tortelloni | Commerce, NYC

Chef Harold Moore's Sweet Potato Tortelloni with Sage Brown Butter is sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and has a delightfully sweet, but slightly tart flavor

This week’s recipe ‘stolen’ from Harold Moore, executive chef and co-owner of Commerce in NYC’s west village is a delectable entrée with savory and sweet elements. Commerce, NYC is a popular restaurant, with a growing celebrity fan-base and a well-heeled crowd, yet the food is comforting and approachable. His Sweet Potato Tortelloni with Sage Brown Butter is sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and has a delightfully sweet, but slightly tart flavor.

Home to Commerce restaurant, the building at 50 Commerce pulses with history. Depression-era revelers snuck in when it was a speakeasy; as the Blue Mill Tavern, it saw 50 years of change; then as a Grange Hall, it captured the heart of Greenwich Village as a beloved gathering place.

About the chef: Chef Moore has a lot of training under his belt - he began his career at Daniel Boulud’s Daniel, worked at Mercer Kitchen and opened both Montrachet and March to three-star reviews from the New York Times before arriving at Commerce. As executive chef and owner of Commerce he has climbed the elite New York City restaurant ladder at a pace that indicates undeniable tenacity and an unyielding passion for the business of food.

Moore’s approach to food is characterized by humility and respect for his patrons. He presents an accessible menu with no mysteries or obscurities. But that is not to say that complexity and technique are not evident in his cooking. He aspires to “cook what people want to eat.” When asked how he knows what that is, he offers a multi-tiered answer: “I think of my parents. Then I think of everything that I have learned from great chefs like Daniel. Then, of course, I think of the sophisticated New York audience.”

Commerce
50 Commerce Street
New York, NY 10014
212 524 2301

Sweet Potato Tortelloni is served at Commerce for $15.
This recipe makes 4 restaurant servings.

Sweet Potato Tortelloni Ingredients:
For Sage Brown Butter:
1 cup butter
2 sprigs sage
Sweet Potato Pasta Filling Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
1/8 cup Sage Brown Butter, from previous recipe
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

For Assembling Pasta:
40 Wonton Shells
Sweet Potato Pasta Filling, from previous recipe

For Composing the Dish:
40 pieces filled Tortelloni
½ cup Sage Brown Butter, from previous recipe
½ cup low sodium chicken stock
¼ cup pomegranate seeds
¼ cup hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
1cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, thinly sliced
¼ cup pomegranate molasses, optional

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Sage Brown Butter:
Cook the butter over high heat until it starts to brown, it should smell nutty.
Remove the butter from heat and drop the sprigs of sage into the butter.
Chill and remove the sage; stir occasionally to evenly mix.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Sweet Potato Filling:
Roast sweet potatoes on racks at 450 for 30minutes.
Cut a slit on top of each potato and cool.
Scoop out the insides and blend in a food processor with butter and cheese.
Season to taste.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions to Assemble Pasta:
Bring the pasta filling to room temperature.
Cut the wonton shells into circles; you can use a large circle cutter, also an empty and cleaned tin can works well.
Place about 1 tablespoon of filling into each shell and moisten the dough around the filling.
Fold the dough around the filling into a half moon shape, press together tightly while squeezing out any trapped air.
Fold the two corners together and press them together firmly, you can use a little bit of water to help them stick.
After the pasta is made, it can be packed in cornmeal and stored in the freezer until cooked.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions to Compose the Dish:
Cook the tortelloni in salted boiling water for about 7 minutes, or until the filling feels soft and hot.
In a large saucepan, combine the cooked pasta, sage brown butter, chicken stock, pomegranate seeds and hazelnuts and simmer over medium heat until the pasta is well glazed.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the parsley and parmesan.
Garnish by brushing a thin layer of pomegranate molasses on each plate and portion 10 pieces of pasta on top.