🇮🇹 Italy · Bologna, Emilia
Tortellini in brodoItalian tortellini soup
Small ring-shaped stuffed pasta (tortellini) filled with pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella, Parmigiano and egg, served in a clear broth of capon or hen with beef, the traditional Christmas first course of Bologna.
Origin and history
Tortellini in brodo is the emblematic filled pasta of Bologna, served in capon broth. The Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino, a local association, set down a reference recipe and lodged it with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce. Accounts disagree on the date of the deposit (Bologna's tourism site gives 2008, a local newspaper mentions 1972), so it is not dated here.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings (about 120 tortellini)
- Total time
- 4 h
- Hands-on
- 1 h 30 min
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg2.6 lb capon or large hen, whole, cleaned
- 500 g1.1 lb beef for broth (brisket or similar), in one piece
- 1 carrot, peeled
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 onion, left whole
- coarse salt, to taste
- 40 g1.4 oz pork loin, cooked gently in butter, cooled
- 40 g1.4 oz prosciutto crudo (Parma or similar), lean part
- 40 g1.4 oz mortadella di Bologna
- 60 g2.1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
- 1 egg, for the filling
- nutmeg, freshly grated, a pinch
- 200 g1.5 cups plain wheat flour (type 00), plus extra for dusting
- 2 eggs, for the pasta dough
Method
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1. Put the capon and the beef in a tall pot with the carrot, celery and onion and cover with about 3 litres (3 quarts) of cold water.
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2. Bring slowly to a bare simmer, skim the foam, add a little coarse salt and cook very gently, uncovered, for about 2 1/2 hours. The surface should only tremble.
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3. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, let it settle and lift off the fat. It should taste full but clear; keep it hot (the meat can be served separately).
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4. For the filling, chop the cooked pork loin, prosciutto and mortadella very fine, almost to a paste, with a sharp knife.
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5. Mix in the Parmigiano, the egg and the nutmeg until the filling holds together, then cover and rest it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
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6. Make the dough: mound the flour, break the eggs into a well and work them in with a fork, then knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap and rest it for 30 minutes.
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7. Roll the dough out by hand until it is paper thin, then cut it into squares of about 4 cm (1.5 in).
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8. Put a hazelnut-sized dab of filling in the centre of each square and fold it into a triangle, pressing the edges closed.
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9. Wrap the long edge around your fingertip, bring the two far corners together and press them to seal, so the tortellino looks like a small ring with the tip folded down. Keep the finished ones under a dry cloth.
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10. Bring the broth to a rolling boil, drop in the tortellini and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until they float and the pasta is tender.
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11. Ladle the tortellini and plenty of broth into warm bowls and serve at once, with grated Parmigiano on the table if you like.
Notes
- The broth is made from a capon (or hen) together with beef cuts suited to broth, such as brisket, with celery, carrot and onion; the proportions vary from house to house. Using both gives a clear, golden, well-rounded broth.
- The filling is the part that is argued over. The reference recipe set down by the Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino names pork loin, raw ham (prosciutto crudo), Bologna mortadella, Parmigiano Reggiano, egg and nutmeg. The Confraternita's published proportions are equal weights of the three meats to about one and a half times as much cheese; the quantities here keep that ratio at home scale. Stick to that list rather than adding other flavourings.
- The pasta sheet is made by hand with a rolling pin, not a machine, and the tortellini are tiny: the classic one weighs about 5 g cooked, cut from squares of roughly 4 to 4.5 cm.
- The same idea exists in neighbouring towns as cappelletti in brodo and agnolini in brodo, which have their own pasta shapes and fillings and have separate pages on this site.
- Make ahead: uncooked tortellini freeze well on a tray and go straight from the freezer into boiling broth with an extra minute of cooking. The broth keeps for 3 days in the fridge.
- The filling quantity here is generous for the amount of dough, so expect to make a few dozen tortellini and freeze any spare filling; the Confraternita's own recipe scales the filling for about 1,000 tortellini.
Adapted from Bologna Welcome, Tortellini in brodo (recipe as given by the Confraternita del Tortellino) and Il Resto del Carlino, Tortellini ricetta (ingredient protocol for the dish).
At the festivals
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