Italian Parma Anolini in Broth | Anolini di Parma in Brodo
Anolini in brodo is what Parma eats on Christmas Eve, and the city treats the recipe with the seriousness other places reserve for a religious rite. The parcels are tiny, barely wider than a thumbnail, and they arrive in a clear amber broth with nothing else in the bowl. No butter, no sage, no cream. If either the broth or the filling is less than excellent, there is nowhere at all to hide.
The filling is the part that surprises people. In Parma the beef is braised for the best part of a day, and then, in the strictest version, the meat itself does not go into the anolini. Only its concentrated juices do, soaked into fine breadcrumbs and bound with Parmigiano Reggiano, egg and nutmeg. The stracotto is eaten as a second course the next day, which is exactly the sort of arrangement a frugal kitchen invents and a proud one keeps.
Everything else follows. The pasta has to be rolled thin enough to read print through, because a thick wrapper turns a delicate parcel into a dumpling. The broth has to be built from three meats and kept perfectly transparent. The anolini are cooked in it and served in it, so the broth is not a cooking medium but half the dish.
Yield: 6 servings. Prep: 2 hours. Cook: 5 hours. Rest: 2 hours. Total: about 9 hours over two days. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo piatto. Region: Emilia Romagna, Parma.
The Story
Anolini are recorded in Parma long before most filled pastas had settled into their modern shapes. The ducal kitchens mention them by the sixteenth century, and the dialect name, anolén, was in ordinary use long before anyone wrote a recipe down. They belong to the winter calendar rather than to everyday cooking: Christmas Eve above all, and in many households Santo Stefano as well.
The most revealing detail is the argument with Piacenza, forty miles up the road, which makes anolini too and makes them differently. Piacenza puts the braised beef itself into the filling, minced fine, and cuts the parcels into half moons. Parma leaves the meat out and uses only the reduced braising juices with breadcrumbs and Parmigiano Reggiano, and cuts a small disc with a round stamp. Neither city will concede the point, and no Parmigiano cook will accept a half moon on Christmas Eve.
The broth explains the rest. What Parma calls brodo di terza is built from three meats, usually beef, capon and a marrow bone, so that no single flavour dominates. That is the cooking of a rich dairy and pork province, and it is the same instinct that makes the filling depend on Parmigiano Reggiano aged well past two years.
Ingredients
For the stracotto and the filling
Beef chuck or brisket in one piece, 1 1/2 lb (680 g)
Unsalted butter, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Yellow onion, finely chopped, 1 small (90 g)
Carrot, finely chopped, 1 small (60 g)
Celery stalk, finely chopped, 1 (50 g)
Dry red wine, 1 cup (240 ml)
Beef stock, 1 1/2 cups (360 ml)
Tomato paste, 1 tbsp (16 g)
Cloves, 2, and 1 bay leaf
Fine dry breadcrumbs, unseasoned, 1 1/4 cups (140 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano aged 30 months, grated, 1 1/2 cups (150 g)
Egg, large, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 tsp
Fine sea salt and black pepper, to taste
For the pasta
Italian 00 flour, 3 cups (390 g)
Eggs, large, 3, plus 2 yolks
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Semolina for dusting, 2 tbsp (20 g)
For the broth
Beef shank with bone, 1 1/2 lb (680 g)
Capon or free range chicken, in pieces, 1 lb (450 g)
Beef marrow bone, 1
Cold water, 10 cups (2.4 litres)
Yellow onion, halved and charred, 1
Carrot, 1, and celery stalk, 1
Ripe tomato, 1 small
Coarse sea salt, 2 tsp (12 g)
For serving
Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated, 1/2 cup (50 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Step 1
Build the broth first, ideally the day before. Put the beef shank, the capon pieces and the marrow bone into a tall pot with the cold water, never hot, so the proteins release slowly and collect at the surface instead of clouding the liquid. Bring it to the edge of a simmer over 40 minutes and skim the grey foam until only clear fat remains. Add the charred onion, the carrot, the celery and the tomato, salt lightly, and hold it at a lazy tremble for 4 hours. Strain it through muslin and lift the set fat off once it is cold.
Step 2
Braise the beef while the broth simmers. Brown the piece all over in the butter and oil, take it out, then soften the onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, return the meat, pour over the wine and reduce it by half. Add the stock, the cloves and the bay leaf, cover, and cook at the barest simmer for 3 1/2 to 4 hours until a fork passes through without resistance. Lift the beef out for another meal and reduce the liquid to about 1 cup (240 ml) of dark glossy juice.
Step 3
Make the filling and let it rest. Strain the reduced juices, warm them, and pour them over the breadcrumbs a little at a time, working with a fork until the crumbs are evenly moistened but not wet. Fold in the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, the egg and the nutmeg, then season carefully, remembering the cheese and the reduction are both already salty. The mixture should hold its shape when rolled between two fingers. Cover it and refrigerate for at least 2 hours so it firms up and the crumbs finish absorbing the liquid.
Step 4
Knead the dough and give it a long rest. Mound the flour, break in the eggs and yolks with the salt, work them to a rough mass, then knead steadily for 10 minutes until the surface is smooth and springs back under a thumb. This dough is deliberately firm, because a soft one cannot be rolled thin enough without tearing. Wrap it and leave it at room temperature for a full hour so the gluten relaxes.
Step 5
Roll the sheets and fill them. Work with one quarter of the dough at a time, keeping the rest wrapped, and take it down to the second thinnest setting of a pasta machine, thin enough to see your hand through. Lay it on a lightly floured board and place filling the size of a chickpea at intervals of about 1 1/4 inches (3 cm). Work quickly, because a sheet that dries at the edges will not seal, and cover each finished strip with a cloth while you roll the next one.
Step 6
Cut, seal and cook the anolini. Fold the sheet over the filling or lay a second sheet on top, press firmly around each mound with your fingertips to drive out every trace of air, then cut with a round stamp of about 1 1/4 inches (3 cm). Check each seal. Bring the strained broth to a gentle boil, drop the anolini in and cook them 3 to 4 minutes from the moment they rise, and ladle them straight into hot bowls with plenty of their broth.
Plating
Use warmed soup plates rather than deep bowls, so the anolini sit in a shallow pool and stay visible instead of sinking out of sight. Count them out: 18 to 20 per person is the Parma portion, and counting rather than ladling blindly is how you avoid one plate holding twice as many as the next.
Ladle the broth over them from the pot, not from a jug, and take it from just below the surface where it is clearest. Fill the plate no more than two thirds. Grate Parmigiano Reggiano over the top at the table and grind a little black pepper, and put nothing else in the plate at all. No parsley, no butter, no drizzle of oil, which would break the clarity the broth was made for.
Professional Technique
The central technique is clarity by control rather than by correction. A broth started in cold water heats slowly enough that soluble proteins coagulate gradually and float, where a ladle can take them off, instead of being churned into suspension. Once it is skimmed and the aromatics are in, it must never rise above a lazy tremble, because agitation emulsifies fat into the liquid and turns it permanently cloudy. Done this way the broth needs no egg white raft and loses no flavour to one.
The second is the moisture balance of a filling that contains no meat. Bread absorbs liquid at roughly three times its own weight, so the reduced juices have to be added gradually and judged by feel. Too little and the filling crumbles when the parcel is cut; too much and it slumps, which makes sealing unreliable. The two hour rest is when the crumbs finish drawing the liquid in and the mixture reaches its true consistency.
The third is the sealing itself, which is where most anolini fail. Air trapped beside the filling expands as the parcel heats and forces the seam open in the pot, and a single burst anolino will cloud a whole plate of broth. Pressing outward from the filling with the pads of the fingers, rather than crimping the edge first, drives the air toward the open side before the stamp closes the circle.
Texture and Moisture Control
Three textures have to arrive together: a wrapper thin enough to disappear, a filling that is moist but holds together, and a broth with body but no thickness. The pasta is the most fragile of the three. Rolled to the second thinnest setting it cooks in three minutes and reads as a membrane around the filling; one setting thicker and it needs five minutes, by which time the seams have started to soften and the parcels sit heavily in the spoon.
The dough itself is kept dry on purpose. Three whole eggs and two yolks to 3 cups (390 g) of flour gives a firm paste that resists tearing under a rolling pin, and the extra yolks add fat that keeps it pliable without adding water. Do not be tempted to soften a stiff dough with a splash of water: rest it longer instead, since gluten relaxes with time and a rested dough rolls thinner than a wet one ever will.
The broth needs enough gelatin to coat the lips faintly and no more. The marrow bone and the shank supply it over four hours, which is why the pot is not rushed or topped up with water after the first hour. If the strained broth tastes thin, reduce it by a quarter before cooking the anolini, never after, because the pasta releases starch into it.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a two day dish. Broth and stracotto on the first day, pasta and assembly on the second, with the anolini shaped a few hours before service at the latest.
Equipment and tools
Tall narrow stockpot of 8 quarts (7.6 litres) and a fine skimming ladle
Muslin or a doubled cotton cloth for straining the broth
Heavy lidded casserole for the stracotto
Pasta machine and a round stamp of 1 1/4 inches (3 cm)
Wooden boards and clean cloths for covering the rolled sheets
Prepared ahead
Broth, made the day before, strained, chilled and degreased
Stracotto braised and its juices reduced, the day before
Filling mixed and refrigerated at least 2 hours, up to 24
Pasta dough kneaded and rested 1 hour, on the day
Anolini shaped on semolina dusted trays, held cold and uncovered
Service setup
Broth at a gentle boil, tasted for salt one last time
Soup plates warming, Parmigiano Reggiano grated to order
Anolini counted into portions before the first one goes in the pot
A slotted spoon and a clean ladle for the clear broth
Everyone at the table before the pasta touches the water
Chef Tips
Buy Parmigiano Reggiano aged at least 30 months and grate it yourself. The filling has no meat in it, so the cheese carries the savoury weight, and a young or pre grated one leaves the anolini tasting flat.
Char the onion for the broth. Halve it and lay it cut side down in a dry pan until the surface is genuinely dark, which gives the broth its amber colour and a faint sweetness without any browning of the meat.
Cook a single test anolino before you shape the rest. Drop one into the broth, watch whether the seam holds, then taste it for salt and for the balance between crumb and cheese. The filling can still be corrected at that point.
Freeze what you shape and do not cook. Anolini go from the tray to the freezer in one layer and into the broth straight from frozen, so this is a dish worth making in quantity on a quiet day.
Common Mistakes
Starting the broth in hot water. Hot water sets the surface proteins instantly and traps them in suspension, so the broth turns cloudy in the first ten minutes and never clears. Always start from cold water and bring it up slowly.
Letting the broth boil. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat into the liquid and makes it greasy and opaque. Hold the pot where a bubble breaks the surface every few seconds and no more, for the whole four hours.
Rolling the pasta too thick. Anolini are small, so the ratio of wrapper to filling is unforgiving, and a thick sheet gives a doughy parcel that tastes of flour. Roll until you can see your hand through it.
Overfilling the parcels. More than a chickpea of filling stops the edges meeting cleanly, and the seam opens in the pot and clouds the broth. Underfilling is the lesser error by a wide margin.
Leaving air inside. Trapped air expands as the anolino heats and bursts the seal from the inside. Press outward from the filling with your fingertips before you stamp, every single time.
Serving them in something other than the broth. Butter, cream or a ragù overwhelm a filling designed to be tasted through clear liquid. In brodo is not a serving suggestion here, it is the recipe.
Wine Pairing
Gutturnio dei Colli Piacentini DOC: The closest serious red to Parma, grown on the hills of Piacenza barely an hour west, and a blend of Barbera and Bonarda with brisk acidity and soft tannin. Choose the still dry version, which is light enough not to flatten a clear broth and sharp enough to reset the palate against the Parmigiano Reggiano in the filling.
Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto DOCG: The dry white of the Emilian hills, with green apple fruit, a faint bitter almond finish and a firm line of acidity. It is an excellent foil for a savoury cheese filling precisely because it adds no weight of its own, and its slightly stony character keeps the broth tasting clean rather than fatty.
Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOC: The darkest and most tannic of the Lambruschi, from the hills south of Modena, and the one to choose in its secco form when the filling is rich with aged cheese. The fine bubble scrubs the palate between mouthfuls and the blackberry fruit stands up to the reduced braising juices without ever competing with the broth.
Franciacorta DOCG: A traditional method sparkling wine from Lombardy, dry, with autolytic notes of bread crust and toasted nut from its long time on the lees. Those notes run parallel to the breadcrumbs and the Parmigiano Reggiano in the filling, and the acidity and mousse lift a broth that is deliberately rich in gelatin.
Romagna Albana DOCG: In its secco version this is a white with unusual grip for Italy, faintly tannic from its thick skins and built on ripe apricot and hazelnut. That texture is the point here: it has enough body to accompany a long simmered broth, and the mild phenolic bite echoes the nuttiness of a 30 month Parmigiano Reggiano.
Storage & Reheating
Never store the anolini sitting in broth, which softens the wrapper and swells the filling within an hour. The strained broth holds 4 days in the refrigerator under its own cap of set fat, which you leave in place until you use it, and freezes for 3 months. Uncooked anolini freeze best of all: spread them on a semolina dusted tray until solid, then bag them and cook straight from frozen with one extra minute.
Cooked anolini keep one day only. Lift them out of the broth, cool them on a tray and refrigerate them covered. To serve, bring the broth back to a gentle simmer and slip them in for 60 seconds. Do not boil them a second time and never use a microwave, which bursts the parcels.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 portions of about 18 anolini each:
Calories: 520 kcal
Total Fat: 19 g
Saturated Fat: 9 g
Trans Fat: 0.3 g
Unsaturated Fat: 8 g
Cholesterol: 165 mg
Sodium: 830 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 55 g
Fiber: 3 g
Total Sugars: 3 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 30 g
Lactose: 0.2 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, vitamin B12, riboflavin
These figures are estimates. The braised beef is served separately in the Parma version, so only its reduced juices count here, and the sodium depends on how firmly the broth was salted.
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