For the tortellini
For the pasta:
4 eggs
400g flour
For the filling:
70g minced beef/veal
70g pork loin
80g parma ham
80g mortadella of Bologna
150g grated Parmigiano Reggiano
20g butter
1 large egg
Grated nutmeg, salt and black pepper, to taste
Method
- Place the flour on a pastry board, forming a large bowl/volcano in the center and add the eggs. Mix gradually, until you get a soft and smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes (and if you like up to two hours) in a cool place (not the fridge).
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling: cut the veal pulp, pork loin, raw ham and mortadella into coarse pieces and put them aside.
- Melt the butter in a pan and add the veal and pork meat in pieces: let it brown for about ten minutes or until it completely loses the juices.
- Once ready, let it cool, and transfer the meat to a mixer together with the ham and mortadella. Blend until you get a fine and well blended mixture.
- Add the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, pepper to taste and the egg and continue blending to obtain a homogeneous mixture. If necessary, add salt, tasting the filling first, as both the raw ham and the Parmesan cheese are quite salty.
- Take the egg pasta back and roll it out with the pasta machine or a rolling pin into thin rectangular sheets, trying to keep the dough as soft as possible, using just a little flour to dust the sheets if it feels sticky.
- Pass the sheets through the machine several times, reducing the thickness each time until they’re around 0.6mm thick. Cut into squares of 4 x 4 cm.
- On top of each square, lay a couple of grams of cold filling. Take a square and fold the dough into a triangle, point by point, pressing the edges well to make them stick (if the dough has dried slightly, brush the edges lightly with a little water).
- Take the triangle of dough, fold the base of the triangle upwards; now place the paste obtained on the index finger, with the tip of the triangle facing upwards and with the help of the other hand, join the two ends of the base around the finger with a slight pressure and turning slightly downwards, making sure the edges adhere well. Gently remove the tortellino from the finger and lay it on a lightly floured cloth. Cook them in the broth below as you would using normal water.
For the beef broth
500g minced beef shoulder
400g beef steak
400g beef with bones
60g celery
100g carrots
100g white onions
150g cherry or other fresh tomatoes
4 litres water
40g extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves
Salt, to taste
4 peppercorns
Method
- Wash, dry and peel the carrots and cut them into chunks. Cut the celery and halve the tomatoes and peeled onion. Fry them together for about 4 minutes in a non-stick pan over high heat, turning them from time to time.
- Add them with all the other vegetables in a large, high-sided pan with the olive oil, flavouring with cloves and peppercorns to taste.
- Pour the bones, minced shoulder and other meat into the pan. Cover the meat with 3 litres of water and let it cook over medium-high heat for about 2 hours, until the broth is reduced by about half.
- Add the remaining litre of water and let it cook for another hour over low heat.
- During this time it will be necessary to foam the broth, that is, skim off the fat and impurities that will float on the surface. At the end of cooking the broth will be reduced. Filter the broth so as to separate the liquid from the meat and vegetables: pour the broth back into the pan and salt to season. Now our meat broth is ready and we can cook our tortellini in it!
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