Three-Cheese Tortellini en Brodo

1. In a medium bowl, combine mozzarella, ricotta, Parmesan, 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper, and 2 teaspoons salt.

2. Attach your pasta machine to the edge of a clean, long work surface. Divide the dough into 2 baseball-size balls. Flatten them slightly with your hand and dust them lightly with flour. Set the pasta machine to the widest setting and feed 1 ball of dough into it, 4 or 5 times in a row. Adjust the setting to the next-widest, and feed the dough through 3 or 4 times. If the pasta cracks along the side, fold the cracked edge over and feed the sheet through the machine again to smooth it out. Continue rolling out and changing the setting until you’ve rolled the dough to setting 5 (at this point, the dough should be pretty thin).

3. Lay the pasta sheets flat and cut into 3- or 4-inch rounds with a cookie cutter (a cup works fine, too). Place ¼ teaspoon of the cheese filling into the center of each round. Fold over into a half-moon shape and seal by gently pinching together the edges, then join the 2 corners around your finger, forming a circle shape. Continue until you have run out of filling (you’ll probably have leftover pasta dough).

4. In a medium to large saucepan, combine the broth, water, tarragon, parsley, and 2 teaspoons of salt; bring to a boil. Remove the tarragon and parsley. Add the tortellini and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until tender. Serve the tortellini in a shallow bowl with broth and finish with Parmesan, lemon zest, salt, and cracked black pepper.