Tortellini in Capon Broth | Tortellini in Brodo di Cappone
Capon broth is what separates this bowl from every other tortellini in brodo. A capon is a castrated and fattened cockerel whose fat runs through the flesh rather than sitting under the skin, so a long gentle simmer draws out a broth with body and a faint sweetness that no chicken and no beef produce alone. In Bologna and Modena the Christmas broth is made this way, and the tortellini are cut small enough that a spoon holds four or five at once.
The filling is the other fixed point. Pork loin, prosciutto di Parma, mortadella di Bologna and a great deal of Parmigiano Reggiano, bound with egg and perfumed with nutmeg, in the proportions deposited with the Bologna chamber of commerce in 1974. It is built to be tasted through a broth, which is why it is so salty and so densely cheesy: anything milder would vanish the moment it met the liquid.
Yield: 6 servings. Prep: 2 hours, plus 1 hour resting for the dough. Cook: 4 hours for the broth, 3 minutes for the tortellini. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo piatto. Region: Emilia Romagna, between Bologna and Modena.
The Story
Tortellini belong to a stretch of the Via Emilia perhaps forty miles long, and Bologna and Modena have argued about which of them owns the shape since long before anyone wrote it down. The compromise is geographic: Castelfranco Emilia, the town on the road between them, claims the invention through the legend of an innkeeper who spied on a noble guest through a keyhole and reproduced her navel in pasta. The story is late and almost certainly invented to settle the quarrel, but the rule it implies is obeyed: a tortellino is small, closed around a ring, and eaten by the spoonful.
What is documented is the recipe itself. On 7 December 1974 the Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino and the Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposited the official filling with the Bologna chamber of commerce, listing pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella, Parmigiano Reggiano, egg and nutmeg in fixed quantities, and a second deposit in 2010 recorded the broth. Capon is what a farming family here killed for Christmas, and in many households tortellini in brodo di cappone is eaten only once a year, on 25 December.
Ingredients
For the capon broth
Whole capon, 4 lb (1.8 kg), or capon carcass plus thighs
Beef shin with bone, 12 oz (340 g)
Cold water, 5 quarts (4.7 liters)
Carrots, 2 medium
Celery stalks, 2
Yellow onion, halved and charred, 1 large
Flat leaf parsley stems, 6
Black peppercorns, 6
Coarse sea salt, 2 tsp (12 g), added at the end
For the pasta dough
Italian 00 flour, 2 1/3 cups (300 g)
Large eggs, 3, at room temperature
Large egg yolk, 1
Fine sea salt, 1 pinch
For the filling
Pork loin, in 1/2 inch cubes, 10 oz (300 g)
Prosciutto di Parma, in one piece, 10 oz (300 g)
Mortadella di Bologna, in one piece, 10 oz (300 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, aged 24 months, finely grated, 1 1/2 cups (150 g)
Large eggs, 2
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1/2 tsp (1 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fine sea salt, only if needed
For finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, to pass at the table
Semolina flour, for dusting the trays
Preparation
Step 1
Start the broth in cold water. Put the capon and the beef shin in a tall stockpot, cover with the cold water and bring it to a bare tremble over medium heat, which should take half an hour. Cold water lets the soluble proteins leave slowly and rise as a foam you can remove, which is how a broth ends up clear. Skim it every few minutes until it stops forming, roughly the first 20 minutes, without stirring.
Step 2
Add the vegetables and simmer four hours. Once the skimming is done, add the carrots, celery, charred onion, parsley stems and peppercorns. Hold the pot where a bubble breaks the surface every second or two, uncovered and unsalted, for four hours. A capon gives up its fat and gelatin slowly, and a boil would emulsify that fat into the liquid and cloud it permanently. Salt only at the end.
Step 3
Strain, chill and defat the broth. Lift out the solids, then pass the broth through a fine mesh sieve lined with damp muslin without pressing on anything. Refrigerate it overnight: the fat sets into a cap you can lift off in one sheet, far cleaner than skimming hot liquid, and a good broth sets to a soft jelly underneath. Reheat, taste and salt lightly. You want about 8 cups (1.9 liters).
Step 4
Cook the filling meats. Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat and cook the cubed pork loin for 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until coloured on all sides and just cooked through. Do not brown it hard: the filling wants the sweetness of cooked pork, not a roasted crust. Cool it completely, because warm meat cooks the egg when you bind the mixture and turns the filling crumbly.
Step 5
Grind and bind the filling. Pass the cooled pork, the prosciutto and the mortadella twice through the fine plate of a meat grinder, or pulse them in a food processor to a fine even paste. Add the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, the eggs, the nutmeg and a good grind of pepper and mix until uniform and holding its shape on a spoon. Taste before adding salt: the cured meats and the aged cheese usually make it unnecessary.
Step 6
Rest the filling and make the dough. Cover the filling and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or overnight, so it firms and the nutmeg settles through it. Meanwhile mound the flour on a board, make a well, add the eggs, the extra yolk and the salt, and draw the flour in with a fork. Knead for a full 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and springs back slowly when pressed, then wrap it and rest it at room temperature for 1 hour.
Step 7
Roll the dough thin. Cut it into four pieces and keep three covered. Roll each through the pasta machine one setting at a time down to the second thinnest, about 0.6 mm, thin enough to read printed type through, because a tortellino has two layers of pasta at the seam and a thick sheet gives a gummy mouthful. Work fast and keep the sheets under a cloth, since a dried edge will not seal.
Step 8
Cut and fill. Cut the sheet into squares of 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) and put a piece of filling the size of a small pea in the centre of each. Resist using more: the classic ratio is roughly 1 g of filling in a 1 g square, and overfilling is what makes tortellini burst. Cover the squares you are not working on, and work in small batches so the pasta stays supple.
Step 9
Fold and close each tortellino. Fold the square into a triangle over the filling and press the edges to expel the air, since a trapped pocket expands in hot broth and splits the seam. Wrap the long edge around the tip of your index finger and press the two corners together, folding the top point back slightly to give the ring its collar. Set them on a semolina dusted tray, not touching. The first fifty of yours will be ugly.
Step 10
Cook them in the broth itself. Bring the salted capon broth to a gentle simmer, never a rolling boil, and lower the tortellini in. Fresh ones need 2 to 3 minutes and are done shortly after they rise, since the filling is already cooked and only the sheet is hydrating. Cooking them in the serving broth is deliberate: the little starch they release gives it the faint silkiness that distinguishes this dish from pasta boiled in water and tipped into a bowl.
Plating
Warm the bowls and use wide shallow ones rather than deep dishes, since broth cools fast and a cold bowl drops it below serving temperature by the second spoonful. Count the tortellini rather than ladling at random: twenty to twenty five per person is the Emilian portion, arranged in a loose single layer so every spoon picks up four or five with the liquid.
Ladle the broth over them until the tortellini are just covered and no more, around 5 fl oz (150 ml) a bowl. This is pasta in broth, not soup, and too much liquid dilutes both the filling and the point. Serve immediately and pass the grated Parmigiano Reggiano separately. Nothing else goes in the bowl: no parsley, no oil, no pepper from the kitchen.
Professional Technique
The defining technique is the extraction of a capon broth, which behaves differently from chicken stock. A capon carries intramuscular fat and a high proportion of connective tissue, so what leaves the carcass over four hours is collagen converting to gelatin alongside fat that will not stay in suspension unless you agitate it. Held just below a simmer the fat rises and can be removed; brought to a boil even briefly it emulsifies and the broth turns permanently cloudy. The overnight chill is the insurance: the fat sets hard and comes off in one disc, and the gelatin underneath gives the broth the weight that carries a rich filling.
The second is the seal on the tortellino. Two layers of pasta meet at the collar, and any air left between the filling and the pasta expands as the parcel heats, forcing the seam apart in the broth. Pressing from the filling outward when you fold the triangle drives that air out, and the final pinch of the two corners locks a dry, flour free surface against itself. This is also why the sheets must stay covered: pasta that has dried for even two minutes will not bond to itself, and no amount of pressure will rescue it.
Texture and Moisture Control
There is no al dente here in the sense that a dry pasta has one. Fresh egg pasta rolled to 0.6 mm is fully hydrated within two or three minutes, and the texture you are protecting is the seam, where two thicknesses of sheet must soften at the same rate as the single layer around the filling. Rolling too thick leaves the collar still chewy when the rest is ready; rolling too thin gives a wrapper that ruptures under the weight of its own filling. The second thinnest setting is where both problems disappear.
Moisture in the filling is the other control, and it is managed by the cheese. A hundred and fifty grams of Parmigiano Reggiano to nine hundred grams of meat binds the free water released by the ground prosciutto and mortadella, so the paste holds a shape on the spoon rather than weeping into the pasta. A wet filling softens the sheet from inside while the tortellini wait, and the parcels stick and tear when lifted. If the mixture looks loose, another twenty grams of cheese fixes it; water is never the answer, and neither is breadcrumb.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a three day dish in a professional kitchen and a two day one at home. Broth on the first day, filling and folding on the second, service on the third.
Equipment and tools
Tall stockpot of at least 8 quarts (7.5 liters)
Fine mesh sieve and damp muslin for straining
Meat grinder with a fine plate, or a food processor
Pasta machine, pastry wheel, trays dusted with semolina
Prepared ahead
Capon broth, up to 3 days ahead, strained and refrigerated with its fat cap on
Filling, up to 2 days ahead, covered and refrigerated
Tortellini folded and frozen on trays up to 1 month ahead
Parmigiano Reggiano grated on the day, never in advance
Service setup
Broth at a gentle simmer, tasted for salt while hot
Tortellini counted into portions on semolina dusted trays
Bowls warming in a low oven, ladle and slotted spoon to hand
Grated cheese in a bowl to pass at the table
Chef Tips
Ask the butcher for prosciutto and mortadella in one piece rather than sliced. Sliced cured meat smears in a grinder instead of cutting, and the filling ends up pasty. The prosciutto end piece, the part nobody wants on a board, is ideal here and costs a fraction of the price.
Make the broth two days before you need it. The first night in the refrigerator sets the fat for removal and the flavour rounds out over the second, and it keeps you from making broth and folding tortellini on the same day.
Freeze the tortellini the moment they are folded if you are not cooking them within an hour. Spread them on a semolina dusted tray, freeze until hard, then bag them. Left at room temperature they absorb moisture from the filling, soften and stick, and they cook straight from frozen with one extra minute.
Save the capon meat from the broth. Shredded with a little of the broth, some parsley and a spoon of good olive oil, it makes the Emilian second course that traditionally follows.
Common Mistakes
Boiling the broth instead of simmering it. A boil emulsifies the capon fat into the liquid and the broth turns cloudy and greasy in a way that cannot be reversed. Hold it where a bubble breaks the surface every second or two, and salt only after straining.
Overfilling the tortellini. The classic ratio is about a gram of filling to a gram of pasta, and anything more forces the seam open in the broth. Use a piece the size of a small pea and no larger, however wasteful it feels.
Rolling the sheet too thick. Two layers meet at the collar, so a thick sheet leaves a chewy knot of raw tasting pasta when the rest is done. Take it to the second thinnest setting, thin enough to read printed type through.
Leaving air inside the parcel. Trapped air expands in the hot broth and bursts the seam, spilling the filling and clouding the liquid. Press from the filling outward as you fold the triangle so the air is driven out before the edges meet.
Letting the pasta sheets dry. A sheet that has sat uncovered for a couple of minutes will not bond to itself and the tortellini open in the pot. Work in small batches and keep everything you are not cutting under a cloth.
Wine Pairing
Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: The Modenese answer and the one poured at the Christmas table itself. Sorbara is the palest and most acidic of the Lambrusco family, dry, lightly sparkling and scented with wild strawberry and violet. Its acidity and fine bubble cut the fat of the capon broth and the cured pork in the filling at the same time, and it is served cold at 50°F (10°C), which resets the palate between spoonfuls of a hot dish.
Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto DOCG: The white of the hills immediately south of Bologna and the obvious choice for anyone who does not want a red. Pignoletto is dry and firmly acidic with green apple, pear and a slightly bitter almond finish, and that bitterness is useful against the sweetness the capon fat brings to the broth. It has body enough not to vanish beside Parmigiano Reggiano aged two years.
Franciacorta DOCG: The formal option when tortellini open a long meal. A brut metodo classico brings high acidity and a persistent fine bead that scours the palate of gelatin and fat, while its lees ageing gives a bread and hazelnut note that echoes the nutmeg and the aged cheese in the filling. Serve it at 46°F (8°C) and pour small glasses, since the broth arrives hot.
Romagna Sangiovese DOC: A red for those who want one, and the right kind of red. Young Romagna Sangiovese is medium bodied with sour cherry fruit, fresh acidity and tannin light enough not to collide with a delicate broth. Choose an unoaked bottling and serve it at 59°F (15°C): anything more structured or warmer will sit on top of the dish instead of beside it.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the broth and the tortellini apart until the moment of service. Uncooked tortellini hold on a semolina dusted tray in the refrigerator for about 4 hours before the filling begins to soften the pasta from inside, so beyond that they should be frozen: spread them in one layer until hard, then bag them for up to 1 month and cook them straight from frozen with one extra minute in the broth. The strained broth keeps refrigerated for up to 4 days with its fat cap left on as a seal, and freezes in portions for up to 3 months.
Cooked tortellini do not store well in broth. Left in the liquid they keep absorbing it and by the next day the pasta has gone slack and the broth starchy. Lift any leftovers out with a slotted spoon, cool them separately, and refrigerate the two parts sealed for one day only. To serve them again, bring the broth to a gentle simmer and warm the tortellini in it for about a minute, never in a microwave, which heats the filling far faster than the pasta and splits the seams.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 servings of about 22 tortellini with broth:
Calories: 560 kcal
Total Fat: 27 g
Saturated Fat: 11 g
Trans Fat: 0.2 g
Unsaturated Fat: 15 g
Cholesterol: 195 mg
Sodium: 1250 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 42 g
Fiber: 1.8 g
Total Sugars: 2 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 35 g
Lactose: 0.6 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, iron, vitamin B12, niacin, riboflavin
These figures are estimates. Sodium is the least reliable, since prosciutto, mortadella and Parmigiano Reggiano vary widely in salt and much of the broth is usually left in the bowl.
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