Italian Ricotta and Saffron Tortello in Roasted Parmigiano Broth | Tortello di Ricotta e Zafferano in Brodo Arrosto di Parmigiano

Sep 17

11 min read

Tortello di Ricotta e Zafferano in Brodo Arrosto di Parmigiano (Italian Ricotta and Saffron Tortello in Roasted Parmigiano Broth)

A single tortello in a bowl of clear amber broth is a plate with nowhere to hide. One parcel, one liquid, nothing else, so the pasta has to read as a membrane, the ricotta has to taste of milk, and the broth has to carry the savoury weight of the dish by itself. That broth is built from roasted Parmigiano Reggiano rinds, the cheapest thing in an Emilian kitchen turned into the most concentrated one.

Saffron does the other half of the work, and it goes into the filling rather than into the pasta, so the colour arrives only when the tortello is cut and the ricotta bleeds into the broth. Bloomed in warm milk it gives honey, dry hay and a faint bitterness that sits against the roasted nuttiness of the cheese. Thrown in dry, or doubled because the measure looks stingy, it turns metallic and swallows everything.

Yield: 4 servings, one large tortello each. Prep: 1 hour. Broth: 2 hours 30 minutes. Dough rest: 45 minutes. Cook: 4 minutes. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo piatto. Region: Emilia.

The Story

Almost nothing in an Emilian kitchen is guarded as carefully as the rind of a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. It is neither packaging nor waste: it is the same cheese, dried and compacted by the brine bath and by years in the ageing room, and it holds the salt and glutamates of the wheel more densely than the paste does. Households keep rinds in the freezer and drop them into minestrone, into bean and pasta soups, into the Sunday broth, where they soften and give up their savour.

Roasting those rinds before they meet water is the modern part of the recipe, and it belongs to restaurant kitchens in Modena and Bologna rather than to grandmothers. Dry heat pushes the proteins and residual milk sugars into a browning reaction simmering alone never reaches, and the broth tastes of toasted hazelnut and roasted meat although no meat has been near it.

The tortello itself is older and plainer. Ricotta filled tortelli belong to the Apennine belt between Parma, Modena and Bologna, where the tortello d'erbetta marries ricotta with chard and grated Parmigiano and the sfogline still roll the sheet by hand. The saffron is a traveller: Italy grows it on the Navelli plateau in Abruzzo, around San Gimignano and at San Gavino Monreale in Sardinia, picked at dawn, three stigmas to a flower, dried over embers. Saffron inside a fresh cheese filling is an Abruzzese and Sardinian habit, and that is the lineage this plate follows.

Ingredients

For the pasta dough

Italian 00 flour, 1 1/2 cups (200 g)
Semola rimacinata, 1/4 cup (40 g)
Egg yolks, 6
Whole egg, 1
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)

For the ricotta and saffron filling

Sheep milk ricotta, well drained, 9 oz (250 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 1/2 cup (45 g)
Egg yolk, 1
Saffron threads, 1/4 tsp (0.2 g)
Whole milk, warm, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1/2 lemon
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 small pinch
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste

For the roasted Parmigiano broth

Parmigiano Reggiano rinds, scraped clean, 10 oz (285 g)
Water, 8 cups (1.9 l)
Yellow onion, halved, 1/2
Celery stalk, 1
Bay leaf, 1
Black peppercorns, 6
Egg whites, 2
Fine sea salt, to taste

For finishing

Unsalted butter, cold, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 2 tbsp (12 g)
Saffron threads, 8, for the bowls
Extra virgin olive oil, a few drops
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

Roasting the Parmigiano rinds

Scrape the outer face of the rinds until the lettering and every trace of dry grey surface have gone, then cut them into pieces of about 1 inch (2.5 cm). Roast them in a single layer at 400°F (205°C) for 15 to 18 minutes, until they puff slightly and smell of toasted hazelnut. Watch the last five minutes: rinds turn from nutty to acrid in under a minute, and scorched casein never dilutes out.

Drawing the broth

Put the roasted rinds into a tall narrow pot with the water, onion, celery, bay leaf and peppercorns. Bring it to the point where a bubble breaks the surface every few seconds and hold it there for 2 hours. It must never boil, since that emulsifies the cheese fat and costs you any clarity. Skim the fat and keep it. Strain through damp muslin, then chill until the remaining fat lifts off in one disc.

Clarifying to a clear amber

You should have about 5 cups (1.2 l) of cold broth. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, stir them into the cold liquid and set the pot over low heat. Stir gently to roughly 150°F (65°C), then stop touching it and let a pale raft rise and set. Hold at 175°F (80°C) for 20 minutes, ladle out through fresh muslin without disturbing the raft, and season only at the end.

Blooming the saffron

Warm the tablespoon of milk to about 140°F (60°C), crush the saffron threads into it and leave the cup covered for 20 minutes. The liquid should turn deep orange rather than yellow. This step decides whether the filling tastes of saffron or merely looks like it: the aroma compounds are water soluble and need warmth and time. Threads stirred in dry stay as coloured specks.

Draining and seasoning the ricotta

Set the ricotta in a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or overnight. A wet filling is the commonest cause of a burst tortello. Push the drained curd through the sieve until smooth, then fold in the grated Parmigiano, egg yolk, bloomed saffron milk, lemon zest, nutmeg, salt and white pepper. It should taste savoury but slightly under seasoned, since the broth brings salt of its own.

Making the egg yolk dough

Mound the 00 flour and the semola on a board, make a well and add the yolks, whole egg, oil and salt. Draw the flour in with a fork until a shaggy mass forms, then knead on an unfloured board for a full 10 minutes. The dough starts stiff and turns smooth and elastic, and there is no shortcut. Wrap tightly and rest for 45 minutes so the sheet stretches instead of springing back.

Rolling the sheet

Cut the dough in two and keep the piece you are not using wrapped. Roll each one through the machine a notch at a time, folding once after the widest setting, until you can read newsprint through it, roughly 0.6 mm. The thinness is structural: the parcel is wide, the filling soft, and a thick sheet stays chalky while the border overcooks. Keep it under a damp cloth, since a dried edge will not seal.

Forming the single tortello

Cut four discs of about 5 inches (13 cm). Pipe roughly 2 1/2 oz (70 g) of filling into the centre of each, leaving a border of 3/4 inch (2 cm). Brush that border lightly with water, fold the disc into a half moon and press outward from the filling, chasing every trace of air to the edge before sealing. Trapped air splits the seam. Rest the tortelli on semola dusted parchment.

Cooking and finishing

Bring a wide pan of water to a gentle simmer and salt it lightly, about 1 tsp per 4 cups (5 g per litre), since filling and broth are already seasoned. Slide the tortelli in one at a time and cook 3 to 4 minutes at a bare simmer, never at a boil. Meanwhile bring the broth to just below a simmer, whisk in the cold butter and a spoonful of reserved cheese fat off the heat, and check the seasoning.

Plating

Use a wide shallow bowl with a flat base and warm it to around 140°F (60°C). A broth this delicate loses temperature in seconds on a cold plate, and once it drops the cheese fat turns waxy instead of silky. Set one drained tortello slightly off centre and pour about 3/4 cup (180 ml) of broth around it, against the side of the bowl so the sheet is not torn.

Finish with restraint. A few drops of good olive oil on the broth, a light dusting of Parmigiano on the tortello only, two or three saffron threads dropped into the liquid where they bleed a thin orange trail, one turn of pepper. Nothing green, no herb oil, no foam. The diner should be able to cut the parcel and watch the saffron ricotta meet the amber broth.

Professional Technique

The governing technique is extraction followed by clarification, and the two must be kept separate. Extraction wants heat and time, which is why the rinds are roasted and then held for 2 hours just under a simmer: browning supplies aromatic depth, the long infusion pulls out soluble proteins, glutamates and salt. Clarification wants the opposite. Once the raft has set, agitation breaks it and the particles it trapped return to the liquid. Use the smallest burner you have.

The second technique is sealing a parcel far larger than a normal tortello. A standard one holds perhaps 1/2 oz of filling and forgives sloppy work. A 2 1/2 oz parcel is a pressure vessel: the filling warms, the trapped air expands and the weakest point of the seam gives way. Chasing that air outward before the border closes, and sealing a full 3/4 inch (2 cm) of barely dampened border, is what keeps the ricotta inside the pasta.

Texture and Moisture Control

Moisture control starts a day before the pasta is rolled, in the sieve where the ricotta sits. Sheep milk ricotta carries a great deal of whey, and whey left in the filling turns to steam and pushes the seam open. Two hours of draining is the minimum, overnight is better. Passing the drained curd through the sieve then breaks it into a paste that pipes cleanly and sets softly.

The sheet behaves like a fabric with a moisture gradient. Fresh from the machine it is supple and slightly tacky, which is the state in which it seals. Five minutes in dry air and the surface has set, water beads instead of soaking in, and the seam opens however hard you press. Brush the narrowest band of water possible, since a soaked border turns slippery.

In the bowl, texture depends on the little fat that returns to the broth at the end. A fully defatted cheese broth is clean but thin. Cold butter and a spoonful of skimmed fat, whisked in off the heat, give it body without reading as greasy. Never boil it afterwards, or the emulsion breaks into beads of oil.

Professional Mise en Place

Everything except the pasta is done in advance, and the broth is better made the day before. Service lasts four minutes.

Equipment and tools

Tall narrow stockpot, fine mesh sieve and muslin
Probe thermometer, essential for clarifying and blooming
Pasta machine and a 5 inch (13 cm) round cutter
Piping bag with a plain wide tip, or a small spoon
Slotted spoon, wide cooking pan and a ladle

Prepared ahead

Broth drawn, chilled, defatted and clarified, up to 3 days ahead
Reserved cheese fat kept in a small sealed container
Ricotta drained overnight, filling mixed and chilled, 1 day ahead
Tortelli formed and held on semola dusted parchment, 4 hours ahead
Bowls set aside for warming, garnishes weighed out

Service setup

Broth held at 185°F (85°C), never boiling
Cooking water at a bare simmer, lightly salted, wide not deep
Cold butter cubed and cheese fat beside the broth pan
Bowls warming, saffron and grated cheese in small dishes
A clean cloth for draining each tortello

Chef Tips

Collect rinds over months rather than buying them. Any counter that cuts Parmigiano Reggiano generates them daily and will often sell them cheaply, and they freeze indefinitely. Use only genuine Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano rinds: waxed or plastic coated imitations will not roast and leave a chemical note in the pot.

Buy saffron in threads, never in powder. Powder is routinely cut with turmeric or safflower, which give colour and no aroma, and in a dish with two flavours that is impossible to hide. Good threads are deep red with orange tips and perfume your fingers as you crush them.

If the ricotta stays grainy after the sieve, add a teaspoon of grated Parmigiano and beat it for thirty seconds. The cheese absorbs the free moisture keeping the curd separate and the filling tightens into one smooth mass. Do not add cream or more egg, which loosen it and make the seam harder to seal.

Make one test tortello before committing the rest of the dough. Cook it, cut it, taste the filling against a spoonful of broth and adjust the salt in what remains, because a filling seasoned in isolation ends up flat or fighting the broth.

Common Mistakes

Boiling the broth instead of infusing it. A rolling boil drives the cheese fat into suspension and turns the liquid permanently cloudy, and no clarification recovers it. Hold the pot where a bubble surfaces every few seconds.

Stirring after the raft has formed. Once the egg white sets into a raft it is filtering the broth, and breaking it releases everything it captured. Stop stirring at 150°F (65°C) and ladle out from under the raft.

Salting the broth early. Rinds are salty and the liquid reduces over two hours, so a broth seasoned at the start is inedible at the end. Season after clarification, at serving temperature.

Using ricotta straight from the tub. Undrained ricotta is roughly one quarter whey by weight, and that whey becomes steam in the pot. Drain it for two hours at least.

Sealing the tortello with air inside. Trapped air expands the moment the parcel meets hot water and opens the seam from inside. Press outward from the filling and expel it before closing the edge.

Rolling the sheet too thick. On a parcel this wide a heavy sheet stays chalky while the border overcooks, and it eats like a dumpling. Take it to the point where you can read print through it.

Wine Pairing

Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto DOCG: The bottle from the hills that produced the dish. Pignoletto is dry, lightly citric and gently bitter on the close, with brisk acidity that lifts a broth carrying this much cheese fat. Its restraint matters as much as its freshness: little aromatic fruit argues with the saffron, so it refreshes the palate and gets out of the way.

Verdicchio di Matelica DOC: Grown inland in the Marche, where the day to night swing gives it more tension and saline grip than its coastal cousin. That saltiness meets the glutamates of the Parmigiano and makes both taste more savoury, while its bitter almond finish runs alongside the faint bitterness bloomed saffron leaves.

Lugana DOC: The clay soils south of Lake Garda give Turbiana a broad, almost waxy texture most northern whites lack. That texture is the point: it mirrors the buttery body of the broth instead of cutting against it, and the ripe stone fruit sits beside the honeyed side of saffron. Choose a young unoaked bottling.

Franciacorta DOCG: A dry metodo classico brut is the sharpest tool for a dish built on cheese fat. The bead scrubs butter and Parmigiano from the palate, and the bread and hazelnut notes from long lees ageing echo the roasted rinds almost exactly. Serve a non vintage brut at 47°F (8°C) and avoid noticeable dosage, which blunts the saffron.

Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: For a table that wants red, this is the only style light enough to survive. Mountain grown Pinot Nero from the Adige valley is pale, dry and low in tannin, with red cherry fruit and a cool herbal edge that reads savoury rather than sweet. Serve it at 57°F (14°C) so it stays fresh against the broth.

Storage & Reheating

The broth stores well and improves after a night in the refrigerator, where it sets to a light jelly from the dissolved cheese proteins. Keep it in a sealed jar for up to 4 days, or freeze it in portions for 3 months. Reheat slowly to just below a simmer, never boil it once the butter is in, and season again afterwards.

Uncooked tortelli hold about 4 hours on semola dusted parchment in the refrigerator, uncovered so the surface stays dry. Beyond that the filling wets the sheet from inside. To keep them longer, freeze them flat, bag them and cook from frozen for 5 to 6 minutes at a bare simmer. Never thaw first: a thawed tortello falls apart in the water.

A cooked tortello does not keep and must not be reheated: a second cooking turns the sheet gluey and squeezes the ricotta out of the seam. Leftover filling is excellent stirred through hot pasta and keeps covered for 2 days.

Nutrition

Per serving, based on 4 portions of one tortello with broth:

Calories: 520 kcal
Total Fat: 26 g
Saturated Fat: 13 g
Trans Fat: 0.4 g
Unsaturated Fat: 11 g
Cholesterol: 340 mg
Sodium: 780 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 44 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 3 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 27 g
Lactose: 2.5 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, selenium, zinc