Download PDF

The registered recipe

Carved in stone

In order to cherish the typical traditions and to see that they are not lost in time, the “Learned Brotherhood of the Tortellino” together with the Italian Academy of cookery registered the authentic recipe of the filling of the tortellino from Bologna in a deed executed before a notary on December 7th 1974. It was also fixed the parameters of preparation of the broth which must be exclusively made from a farmyard capon. The Prefect of Bologna and the Mayor Renato Zangheri signed the document. It guarantees the classic and traditional flavour of the true tortellino, that is given mostly by the filling that has been made and tasted in the Bolognese families and restaurants for ages.

Moreover, on April 15th, 2008 at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna, the “Learned Brothers” registered the recipe of the typical characteristics of the true tortellino Bolognese and the different stages of its realisation. That is: in the notarial act all the characteristics that make it unique and unmistakable in the panorama of the big national and international cookery are specified. They are: the typical and original shape, the particularity of the filling, the natural genuineness of the dough and the result must weigh 5 grams. Here is how tortellini are prepared! This happened in the presence of the Parish priest Lord Gianfranco Cavina, the “chevalier” of industry Ivo Galletti and the lawyer Mario Stefanelli.

Tortellini must be eaten in broth…

But if you want to eat them with cream the main problem is that you should skim the cream straight out of the just milked milk. The industrial cream mortify the tortellini. Under the “white blanket” they lose the flavour of the filling that only the broth can give them.

There are a lot of questions to be answered about how tortellini must be: Must the filling be raw or cooked? Must the size be small or large? How thick must the dough be? How many eggs? Gran Prevosto Mioli answered these questions in such a way: “The original recipe which was filed at the Chamber of Commerce follows the second Hypothesis that is: cook the pork loin on a slow flame with a mixture of rosemary, garlic, pepper and salt than take it out of the pan and clean it from the mixture. But it is also true that the familiar variations are innumerable: a lot of people prefere the filling raw and say that a raw filling gives more flavour and it is also more digestible. Furthermore the filling, if row, is more homogeneous and, while cooking, melts er in the dough which is wrapping the filling”.

The ingredients

Ingredients for about 1000 tortellini:

  • fresh yellow pasta prepared with 10 eggs and 1 kilo of flour

For the filling:

  • 300 g pork loin
  • 300 g prosciutto
  • 300 g genuine mortadella from Bologna
  • 450 g parmesan cheese
  • 3 chicken eggs
  • nutmeg flavour

For the broth:

  • 1 kg of beef
  • ½ farmyard capon
  • celery
  • carrot
  • onion
  • salt

The preparation

It must be very thorough: you must put a mixture of salt, pepper, rosmary and garlic on the loin and leave it in a pan for two days, then cook it on a slow frame adding a little butter. Take it out of the fire and clean it from the mixture. Then mince the pork, the prosciutto and mortadella very finely and knead everything with parmesan cheese and the eggs. Add the flavour of the nutmeg. The dough must be mixed for a long time until it is well amalgamated and it must rest for at least 24 hours before filling the tortellini.

Of course the excellence of the filling depends on the quality of the raw materials. In order to taste a good tortellino you must prepare an excellent broth which you can make putting a farmyard capon into the water and adding those parts of the beef that are notoriously suitable for broth, such as the brisket etc.