recipe July/August 2004
Tortellini in brodo.
An Italian recipe from the sixteenth century. Dutch version
of this recipe
This is a real classic from the
Italian kitchen: stuffed pasta in broth. The sixteenth century recipe prescribes
the use of meat broth. If you replace this by a good vegetable broth, the result
is a very tasty vegetarian dish.
It is best not to serve the pasta in the broth in which it was cooked, but in
seperately warmed broth of good quality.
The recipe is taken from the
magnificent, but practically unobtainable book of Bartolomeo Scappi, with the
concise title: Opera ("Works",
1570, reprinted till well in the seventeenth century).
Scappi was the personal cook ("il cuoco segreto") of pope Pius V
(1566-1572). The years of his birth and death are unknown. The first known fact
in Scappi's life is April 1536, when he organizes a banquet in honour of Charles
V whilst in the service of cardinal Lorenzo Campeggi. He served several other
cardinals after this, then moved on to popes: first pope Pius IV, later pope
Pius V. In 1567 Scappi was responsible for the festive banquet to celebrate the
first "birthday" of the pontificate of Pius V. Opera consists of six books. The first book is a dialogue between the
master cook and his apprentice, in which the cook, his tasks, the organization
of meals, all kinds of kitchenware, and the inspection and conservation of
foodstuff are the subjects. The other five books contain information on and
recipes for successively meat (cattle and game, and birds),
fish-vegetables-eggs, a list of necessities a for cook travelling in the company
of a prince and foodstuff according to season, recipes for sweet and savoury
pies, and recipes for the sick.
The book is famous for its many excellent illustrations, one of which you can
see here. Whatever object related to cooking in the sixteenth century you can
think of, Opera has an illustration of it: skimmers, knives, sugar
graters, pots and pans, strainers, sieves, ladles, equipment for the hearth,
anything and everything. Even a crannellated pasta cutter (on the near side of
the table on the left in the back of the illustration above)!
Henry Notaker discovered quite recently that part of Opera has been
translated in Dutch in the seventeenth century in the Koockboec
oft Familieren Keukenboec of M. Antonius Magirus (1612). (V. paper by Schildermans
and Sels).
The original recipe, taken from La gastronomie à la
Renaissance. 100 recettes de France et d'Italie, edited by F.
Sabban and S. Serventi, pp.102/104.
I have translated tortelli with tortellini. My father's Italian
neighbour told me that in modern Italian tortelli are a kind of dough-nut
balls that are eaten at Christmas and carnival. However, my dictionary
Handwoordenboek Italaans/Nederlands of Van Dale defines tortelli as
a ring of dough stuffed with vegetables and meat.
Per far
minestra di tortelli d'herba alla Lombarda
Piglinosi biete, & spinaci, taglinosi minute, & lavinosi in piu
acque, & strucchi fuori l'acqua, faccianosi soffriggere con butiro
fresco, & con esse ponasi a bollire una brancata d'herbe odorifere,
& cavinosi, & ponganosi in un vaso di terra oo di rame stagnato,
& giungavisi cascio Parmeggiano grattato, & cascio grasso, tanto
dell'uno quanto dell'altro, & pepe, cannella, garofani, zafferano, uva
passa, & uove crude abastanza; & se la compositione fosse troppo
liquida pongavisi pan grattato, ma se sarà troppo soda, metavisi un poco
piu di butiro, & habbiasi un sfoglio di pasta fatta nel modo che se
dice nel capitolo 177. E faccianosi i tortelli piccoli, & grandi,
facendoli cuocere in buon brodo di carne, & servanosi con cascio,.
zuccaro, & cannella sopra.
To make broth
with tortellini with herbs "alla Lombarda".
Take greens of beets and spinach, chop very finely. Rinse it several times
in water, and press the water out. Then braise [the greens] in fresh
butter, and let them cook with a handful of aromatic herbs. Take them off
the fire and put them in an earthenware pot or a pot of tinned copper. Add
grated Parmesan cheese, and fresh cheese, in equal measure, and pepper,
cinnamon, cloves, saffron, raisins and enough raw eggs. When the mixture
is too runny, add some bread crumbs. But if it is too dry, add some more
butter.
Take a sheet of dough made in the manner as told in chapter 177. Make
small or large tortellini and let them cook in good meat broth. Serve with
cheese, sugar and cinnamon on top of it.
The adapted recipe: Tortellini in
broth.
Note:For the picture of this recipe I made
square pasta, ravioli. To be perfectly honest with you: when I prepared this
dish Ii was in a hurry (the half finales of the EC football was to start in half
an hour!). For tortellini you use exactly the same stuffing and pasta dough. The
only difference is the amount of time needed to make them.
Stuffing: 300 gram (2/3 pound) greens of beets and 300 gram (2/3 pound) coarse spinach, or 600 gram
(1 1/3 pound) coarse
spinach
60 gram (1 cup) chopped green herbs. Parsley the most, furhtermore basil, mint, chives
100 gram (1/2 cup)ricotta cheese
100 gram (1 cup) Parmezan cheese, freshly grated
1 Tbsp. raisins, steeped in warm water, then drained
1 egg
spices: pepper, cinnamon, cloves (1:1:1/4)
1/4 tsp. saffron, bruised in 1/2 Tbsp. hot milk
butter
Broth: To boil
the pasta: Take a pasta cooker or other, large, pan with plenty of water. Add
some stock cubes (meat, chicken, or vegetable).
The broth used to serve the pasta with should preferably be home made, tasty
broth.
Preparation in advance: Prepare the stuffing. Rinse
the vegetables well. Chop them small and braise them in butter until they have
lost their excess water. Add the herbs shortle before removing the pan from the
fire. Drain the vegetables well, squeeze them gently to get them as dry as
possible.
Add the other ingredients for the stuffing to the greens (saffron with milk and
all). Prepare the pasta dough whilst
the greens are cooling. See basic
recipe. Do not forget to add milk to the dough, because you are making
stuffed pasta. The milk will ensure a good sealing of the dough. Also: mind that
you have to make the ravioli or tortellini at once after rolling out a sheet, also
to ensure that the stuffed pasta is sealed. If you let the sheets dry (as you
have to do when you are making tagliatelle and the likes), the pasta will not
seal properly.
Preparation:
Make ravioli.
Sprinkle the worktop with flour, spread the freshly rolled sheet of pastra dough
on it. Heap little spoonfulls stuffing on one half of the sheet. Moisten the
edges and the spaces between the heaps with a finger dipped in water. Fold the
sheet double, and press gently between the stuffing.
Cut the ravioli with a pasta cutter or a knife, and lay the stuffed pasta on a
clean, dry kitchen towel. Take care that the ravioli do not touch each other. Or make tortellini. Use a glass to
cut small circles out of the pasta sheet. Put a spoonful of stuffing on each
round, and fold it in two. Then press the pointed edges of the half circle
together. Lay the tortellini on a clean, dry kitchen towel. Take care that the
ravioli do not touch each other. Heat the broth in which the pasta will
be served. Cook the pasta. Bring an ample
amount of water to the boil in a pasta
cooker, add stock cubes (meat, chicken or vegetable). When the water is
boiling, add the ravioli or tortellini. It will be a matter of seconds before they
are done.
Take the perforated insert (?is this the correct term?) out of the pan, divide
the pasta over preheated soup plates or bowls.
Add some serving broth to the plates or bowls.
To serve: Serve the pasta at once. Place a bowl with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on
the table, as well as a small bowl with sugar mixed with ground cinnamon.
