The Splendid Table

The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland and Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, copyright 1992
Tortellini alla Bolognese, page 140
Prepared on January 6, 2008

The Splendid Table is a must-read, must-own book for anyone interested in Italian cooking. It covers the region of Emilia-Romagna, a province in the northeast of Italy. Emilia-Romagna has gotten more attention lately (Mario Batali is a pretty big fan of the region). It's the home of parmigiano-reggiano cheese, prosciutto, mortadella, balsamic vinegar, and other such wonderful foods.

We made the Bolognese-style tortellini. Dave and I traveled to Bologna a few years ago and ate this type of tortellini a number of times. There is a great article in the New York Times about tortellini classes in Bologna.

This tortellini filling is made of about equal portions of mortadella, prosciutto, pork and turkey with some egg and parmesan (parmigiano-reggiano) cheese. These tortellini are traditionally served in a rich capon broth. We used a rich chicken broth because I could not find a capon and I used chicken breast in the filling because I could not find any turkey breast other than pre-ground turkey breast (which would have been the wrong texture for the filling).

I made the pasta dough first, using the proportions Kasper gives on page 81 (Villa Gaidello Egg Pasta). It's important to make the dough ahead. The rest gives the flour time to absorb moisture. It also allows the gluten you've activated through kneading the dough time to relax. That makes rolling the dough out so much easier.

I used the traditional "eggs in a mound of flour method" to make the dough. I usually just use a bowl, but this method worked well and provided a few exhilarating moments when we thought the well was about to be breached by egg.

Then we made the filling. First we cut the pork and chicken into small strips and sauteed it until done. After the meat was cool, it was chopped very fine (not pureed) with prosciutto, mortadella, parmesan cheese, egg and seasonings.

Then we rolled out the pasta dough and made the tortellini. (Funny how the hardest, most challenging part of the recipe gets the shortest description, huh?) One trick for filling tortellini, or any other small filled pasta: pre-portion the filling first. We portioned out 1/4 teaspoon nuggets of filling on wax paper prior to rolling out the pasta. Traditionally, tortellini are made with circles of pasta. Our circle cutter wasn't sharp enough, so a late-game decision was made to cut and fill squares instead.

This recipe made enough for about six people. Since we are two people, we froze the rest.

To serve: Heat the broth (about 1 1/2 cups per person) and keep it warm while cooking the tortellini. Boil a large pot of water and boil the tortellini until the pasta is cooked through. This takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pasta. Put the cooked tortellini into soup plates and then ladle the broth over the tortellini. Grate additional parmesan cheese over the top and serve.