The name Tortellino is a diminutive of “torta” (pie in Italian), and just like a small pie, tortellini can also be stuffed. Tortellini is one of Bologna’s traditional culinary dishes.
The Confraternita del Tortellino in 1974 deposited the original recipe for the tortellini filling: pork loin, prosciutto, Bologna mortadella, Parmigiano Reggiano, eggs and nutmeg. The pastry must be prepared only with flour and eggs and each tortellino must be made from a sheet of pasta 4 cm per side.
According to legend, Bologna and Modena, engaged in a 12-year struggle over the theft of a bucket, asked the gods for help to resolve the issue. Descending to earth to help the Modenese, Bacchus, Mars and Venus found themselves spending the night in an inn on the border between the two warring cities. The Bolognese innkeeper, captivated by Venus’s beauty, decided to reproduce her navel, which he had glimpsed, using the pastry he was preparing in the kitchen. According to another legend, however, the navel was instead Lucrezia Borgia‘s who had stopped at the inn to rest during one of her trips.
Ingredients for 1000 Tortellini
- 300 g pork loin
- 300 g of prosciutto ham
- 300 g of Bologna mortadella
- 450 g Parmesan cheese
- 8 eggs
- nutmeg
- 400 g of 00-type flour
- halls
Stuffing procedure
- Keep the loin to rest for two days with a chopped mixture of salt, rosemary and garlic on top.
- Cook it over low heat with a little butter.
- Chop it very finely and combine it with the ham, mortadella parmesan, eggs and nutmeg.
- Leave to stand for at least one day.
Procedure for Egg Pasta
- Arrange the flour forming a hollow and break the eggs in the center
- Break the eggs with a fork and proceed by kneading with your hands
- Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for at least half an hour
- Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, trying to bring it to about 0.6 mm.
- Cut it into squares of about 4cm per side
Tortellino preparation procedure
- On top of each square, lay a couple of grams of cold filling.
- Take a square and fold the dough into a triangle, pressing the edges well to make them stick. You can help by wetting your fingers a little with water.
- Fold up the base of the triangle and join the two ends of the base together
- The classic Tortellino is 5 grams and is cooked in capon broth.