Tortelli di Zucca Ferraresi (Italian Ferrara Pumpkin Tortelli) Tortelli di zucca are the Ferrara answer to a vegetable that arrived from the Americas and never left. Inside a thin sheet of egg pasta sits roasted pumpkin, aged Parmigiano, crumbled dry amaretti and nutmeg: a filling that reads sweet, salty and faintly bitter in one mouthful. Butter and sage carry it, and nothing else belongs. The dish stands or falls on how the pumpkin is cooked, hours before the pasta is rolle

Tortelli d'Erbetta Parmigiani (Traditional Italian Parma Herb and Ricotta Tortelli) Tortelli d'erbetta are the fresh pasta of Parma and, in that city, the pasta of one particular night. They are square, sealed with a fluted wheel, filled with cooked greens, ricotta and a great deal of Parmigiano Reggiano, and dressed with nothing but melted butter and more cheese. There is no sauce to hide behind and no garnish. Everything depends on the filling being dry, the sheet being thi

Tortelli Maremmani al Ragù (Traditional Italian Maremma Ricotta and Spinach Tortelli with Meat Ragù) Tortelli maremmani are the largest filled pasta in Tuscany and the plainest. No scalloped edges, no pleats, no folding tricks. Two sheets of egg pasta, a mound of ricotta and greens between them, a square cut with a knife, and that is the whole shape. The size is not decoration but arithmetic: a big tortello takes less pasta per mouthful, and pasta meant flour, and flour cost