Italian Tortellini with Bolognese Ragù | Tortellini al Ragù Bolognese
Updated: 5 hours ago
A tortellino is the smallest and the most demanding object in Emilian cooking. It weighs about 5 grams, it is folded from a square of sfoglia barely bigger than a postage stamp, and it holds a filling of pork loin, Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella di Bologna, Parmigiano Reggiano and nutmeg that is written down and deposited like a legal document. In Bologna it is eaten in capon broth at Christmas, and that is the orthodox way.
This recipe takes the other road, the one the trattorie of the region actually walk for the rest of the year: tortellini asciutti, drained and dressed with a Bolognese ragu. It is a richer plate than tortellini in brodo and it asks for restraint in two places, the size of the pasta and the concentration of the sauce. Get either wrong and you are eating a bowl of meat with meat inside it.
Yield: 4 servings, about 30 tortellini each. Prep: 2 hours. Cook: 3 hours for the ragu. Rest: 2 hours for the filling, 30 minutes for the dough. Total: about 5 hours. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo. Region: Emilia Romagna, Bologna and Modena.
The Story
Bologna and Modena have argued about the tortellino for centuries and neither has won. The legend both cities repeat puts Venus at an inn in Castelfranco Emilia, on the old border between them, and an innkeeper who looks through the keyhole, sees only her navel and runs to the kitchen to reproduce it in pasta. It explains nothing except how seriously the shape is taken.
The documentary history is more useful. On 7 December 1974 the Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino and the Bologna delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposited the filling at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce: pork loin browned in butter, Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella di Bologna, Parmigiano Reggiano aged at least 12 months, eggs and nutmeg. No breadcrumbs, no ricotta, no herbs. The document also fixes the pasta as a simple sfoglia of flour and egg and describes broth as the proper medium.
Serving them dry with ragu is the concession the region made to daily life, and it is older than the purists admit. In the osterie of the Bolognese hills tortellini asciutti have appeared on menus for generations, often on a Sunday, when the ragu was already on the stove for the tagliatelle and there were tortellini left from the holiday. The rule that survived is one of proportion: the sauce dresses the pasta, it never buries it.
Ingredients
For the sfoglia
Soft wheat flour type 00, 2 1/2 cups (300 g)
Large eggs, at room temperature, 3
Fine sea salt, 1 small pinch
For the filling
Pork loin, in one piece, 7 oz (200 g)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Prosciutto di Parma, 3 oz (85 g)
Mortadella di Bologna, 3 oz (85 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, aged 24 months, grated, 4 oz (115 g)
Large egg, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the ragu
Beef skirt or chuck, hand cut into small dice, 10 oz (285 g)
Pancetta, unsmoked, finely chopped, 3 oz (85 g)
Yellow onion, finely diced, 1 small, about 2 oz (60 g)
Carrot, finely diced, 1 small, about 2 oz (60 g)
Celery stalk, finely diced, 1, about 2 oz (60 g)
Tomato passata, 1/3 cup (80 g)
Dry white wine, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Whole milk, 2/3 cup (160 ml)
Light beef broth, hot, 2 cups (480 ml), as needed
Unsalted butter, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Fine sea salt and black pepper, to taste
For finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 2 oz (55 g)
Unsalted butter, cold, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Coarse salt for the water, 1 1/2 tbsp (22 g) for 5 quarts (5 litres)
Reserved cooking water, about 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Preparation
Cooking the meats for the filling
Cut the pork loin into two thick pieces and brown them slowly in the butter over medium low heat for about 12 minutes, turning, until they are golden outside and just cooked through. Do not rush this with high heat, which dries the loin and leaves the outside tough. Let the meat cool completely in the pan with its butter and any juices, which go into the filling as well. Cold meat grinds cleanly, warm meat smears.
Grinding and resting the filling
Pass the cooled pork, the prosciutto and the mortadella twice through the fine plate of a grinder, or pulse them briefly in a food processor until fine and even but not a paste. Fold in the Parmigiano Reggiano, the egg, the nutmeg, salt and pepper by hand until it holds together. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, ideally overnight: the nutmeg and the cured meats need time to move through the mixture, and a filling used straight away tastes flat.
Starting the ragu
Render the pancetta in the butter over low heat for 6 minutes, add the onion, carrot and celery with a pinch of salt and sweat them gently for 12 to 15 minutes until soft and pale gold. Raise the heat, brown the beef in two batches until it catches real colour on the base of the pot, then pour in the white wine and let it reduce away completely, scraping up every browned fragment.
The long simmer and the milk
Add the passata and 1 cup (240 ml) of hot broth, bring it to the barest simmer and cook it for 2 1/2 hours with the lid ajar, adding hot broth a ladle at a time as the surface dries. After the first hour, begin adding the milk a few tablespoons at a time, waiting for each addition to be absorbed. For tortellini the ragu must finish tighter and less abundant than the one for tagliatelle, since the pasta already carries a meat filling of its own. Season at the end.
Rolling the sfoglia
Make the dough with the flour, eggs and salt, knead it for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, wrap it and rest it for 30 minutes. Roll it out very thin, around 0.4 mm, thinner than for tagliatelle, so the finished tortellino is mostly filling and not a mouthful of pasta. Work with one quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest wrapped. The sheet must stay soft and slightly tacky: a sfoglia that has dried will crack along every fold and will not seal.
Cutting and folding the tortellini
Cut the sheet into squares of 1 1/4 inch (3 cm) and put a filling the size of a chickpea, about 1/8 oz (3 g), in the centre of each. Fold the square into a triangle, pressing the air out from the filling towards the edges, and seal firmly. Bring the two base corners around your index finger, overlap and pinch them, then fold the top point back over the ring. Work quickly and cover the finished pieces with a cloth.
Salting the water and cooking the tortellini
Bring 5 quarts (5 litres) of water to a boil and salt it with 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 g) of coarse salt, slightly less than for plain pasta because the filling is already salty with prosciutto and Parmigiano. Lower the tortellini in with a spider, never tip them in, and cook them at a gentle rolling boil for 3 to 4 minutes from the moment they rise. Taste the folded seam, which is the thickest point, and reserve a cup of the water before draining.
Dressing the tortellini
Warm two ladles of ragu in a wide pan over low heat with a splash of the reserved water. Lift the tortellini in with the spider rather than pouring them from a colander, which crushes them, add the cold butter and move the pan in a slow circular motion for 30 seconds. Do not stir with a spoon and never toss them in the air. Take the pan off the heat, add half the Parmigiano Reggiano and swirl once more.
Plating
Use warmed shallow bowls at around 140°F (60°C) and serve about 30 tortellini a person, spooned in rather than poured, so they arrive in a single loose layer instead of a heap. A heap crushes the ones at the bottom and traps steam that softens the seams.
The ragu should be visible between the tortellini, not over them: a couple of spoonfuls into the centre and no more. Finish with grated Parmigiano Reggiano at the table and nothing else. No parsley, no oil, no pepper mill unless a guest asks. Every addition weakens the plate.
Professional Technique
The technique that decides this dish is the balance between the weight of the filling and the thickness of the sfoglia. A tortellino is roughly two thirds filling, and the sheet exists to contain it, not to be tasted. Rolled to 0.4 mm it cooks in three minutes and reads as a thin skin; rolled to the 0.6 mm used for tagliatelle it turns doughy at the seam, where four layers overlap. If you cannot see the grain of the board through the sheet, keep rolling.
The second technique is sealing without air. Every tortellino is a sealed vessel, and any air pocket beside the filling expands as the water heats and forces the seam apart, which is why a badly folded batch empties itself into the pot. Press outwards from the filling to the edge before closing the triangle, and seal between finger and thumb rather than with a fork, which tears a sheet this fine.
Texture and Moisture Control
The filling has to be moist but firm. Parmigiano Reggiano and the egg bind it, the mortadella supplies the fat that keeps it from drying in the water, the pork loin supplies structure. Ground to a smooth paste it turns rubbery once cooked, left too coarse it will not hold when you fold it, so grind twice on a fine plate and stop. If it feels dry after resting, work in a teaspoon of the butter from browning the loin, never water.
The sfoglia is a question of humidity throughout. Keep the dough wrapped, roll one quarter at a time, and cut squares only from a sheet that still takes a fingerprint. Once filled, the tortellini need moving air rather than a covered box: leave them on a cloth dusted with semola for 15 to 20 minutes so the outside firms while the seams stay pliable.
In the pan the dressing is an emulsion made almost without agitation. Starch from the cooking water, cold butter and the fat in the ragu bind when the pan is moved in a circle over low heat, and stirring only tears the seams. Thirty seconds of gentle movement is enough, and a spoonful of hot cooking water loosens a sauce that has gone tight.
Professional Mise en Place
Tortellini are made in advance and dressed at the last second. Spread the work across two days and the dish becomes manageable rather than heroic.
Equipment and tools
Meat grinder with a fine plate, or a food processor used in short pulses
Long rolling pin or a pasta machine that goes to the thinnest setting
Pastry wheel or a sharp knife and a ruler for even 3 cm squares
Wide spider skimmer, wide saute pan, trays lined with cloth and semola
Prepared ahead
Filling made and refrigerated overnight, which improves it considerably
Ragu cooked up to 3 days ahead, kept tight and reheated gently
Tortellini folded on the day, or frozen on trays up to 1 month before
Broth measured and hot, Parmigiano Reggiano grated fresh
Service setup
Two ladles of ragu warming in the wide pan with a spoon of cooking water
Water at a gentle rolling boil, spider and a cup for the starchy water ready
Bowls warmed to around 140°F (60°C), cold butter and cheese within reach
Chef Tips
Buy the mortadella and the prosciutto from a counter and have them cut thick, not shaved. Pre packed slices are drier and saltier, and in a filling of five ingredients the difference is immediate. Real Mortadella di Bologna carries its fat in visible cubes, which is the fat you want.
Weigh your first ten tortellini. The target is about 1/8 oz (3 g) of filling in a 1 1/4 inch (3 cm) square, and almost everyone overfills at the start, which makes the pieces difficult to close and heavy to eat. Once your hand knows the quantity you can stop weighing.
Fold with two people if you can. One rolls and cuts squares, the other fills and closes, which halves the time the sfoglia spends drying. If you are alone, cut only what you can fold in ten minutes.
Keep the ragu for tortellini tighter than you would for ribbons. The pasta brings its own seasoned meat to the plate, so a loose abundant sauce makes the dish monotonous. Reduce it until a spoon drawn through the pot leaves a clear track behind it.
Common Mistakes
Rolling the sfoglia too thick. At the folded seam four layers of pasta sit on top of each other, so a sheet that is fine for tagliatelle gives a doughy, chewy corner in every tortellino. Roll to about 0.4 mm and check that the board shows through.
Overfilling the squares. More than about 1/8 oz (3 g) leaves no clean margin to seal, pushes air into the parcel and produces a piece that bursts in the water. The filling should look almost too small in the square.
Trapping air inside. Air expands as the water heats and blows the seam open, emptying the tortellino into the pot. Press from the filling outwards to the edge before closing the triangle, and seal by hand rather than with a fork.
Letting the sfoglia dry before folding. A sheet that has lost its tack cracks at every fold and refuses to seal, and wetting it with a brush only makes the edges slippery. Work in small batches and keep the unused dough wrapped.
Drowning them in ragu. Tortellini already contain pork, prosciutto and mortadella. A generous sauce on top turns the plate into one flat note of meat. Two spoonfuls a portion, and the pasta should still be visible.
Wine Pairing
Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto DOCG: The hills immediately above Bologna, and the local white that grew up with this food. Grechetto gentile gives a dry wine with pronounced acidity and a faint bitter almond finish that cuts the fat of the mortadella. Where a red meets the ragu head on, this one refreshes between mouthfuls and lets the nutmeg come through.
Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: The palest and most delicate Lambrusco, from the plain north of Modena, and a better choice here than the darker styles. Its high acidity and fine bubble scrub the palate clean after each piece, and its red currant and violet fruit is light enough not to compete with a concentrated sauce. Serve it cold, around 50°F (10°C).
Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: For anyone who wants a serious red without added weight. Mountain Pinot Nero has fine, almost powdery tannin and a savoury undertone of forest floor that echoes the nutmeg and the cured meats rather than covering them. Its acidity handles the butter, and the low extraction keeps the plate light.
Valpolicella Classico DOC: The straightforward Veneto red, not the Ripasso or the Amarone, which are both too concentrated for a plate this fine. Corvina brings sour cherry, a light bitter almond edge and bright acidity with modest tannin, which is exactly what a small parcel of pork and Parmigiano needs. Serve it a little cool, around 61°F (16°C).
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG: The option for a richly reduced ragu and an autumn table. Sangiovese here is fuller than in Romagna, with dried cherry, tobacco and a firm tannic spine that meets three hours of concentrated beef. Choose a younger bottling rather than a Riserva, since long wood ageing brings a sweetness that fights the filling.
Storage & Reheating
Raw tortellini keep on a semola dusted tray in the refrigerator for 24 hours, uncovered so they do not sweat. For longer, freeze them on the tray until solid, bag them for up to 1 month and cook them from frozen with an extra minute. Never thaw them first: they slump and the seams open. The filling alone keeps 2 days refrigerated.
The ragu keeps refrigerated for up to 4 days and freezes for 3 months. Reheat it gently in a saucepan with a splash of broth or milk, stirring, never at a boil, which splits the fat out of the emulsion.
Dressed tortellini do not keep well. Refrigerate leftovers for one day and revive them in a covered pan over low heat with a tablespoon of water and a knob of butter, shaking the pan rather than stirring. Skip the microwave: it overcooks the filling and turns the seams rubbery.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 portions of about 30 tortellini:
Calories: 870 kcal
Total Fat: 44 g
Saturated Fat: 20 g
Trans Fat: 0.6 g
Unsaturated Fat: 22 g
Cholesterol: 290 mg
Sodium: 1350 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 64 g
Fiber: 3 g
Total Sugars: 6 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 50 g
Lactose: 2 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, vitamin B12, niacin, selenium
These figures are estimates. Sodium runs high because prosciutto, mortadella and Parmigiano Reggiano are all cured or aged, which is why the cooking water is salted more lightly than usual.
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