The most traditional meat tortellini filling in Italy! This is the authentic tortellini recipe of Bologna Italy. With regional ingredients like Parmigiano and prosciutto, this tortellini is unforgettable!
1 pasta roller or, use a large rolling pin if you are really good!
1 food grinder meat grinder or food processor for grinding the meat ingredients
1 pasta cutter for ravioli (optional) to cut the pasta sheets quickly into squares
Ingredients
Tortellini Filling
11ozpork loin
11ozmortadellaa deli meat similar to bologna
11ozprosciuttoProsciutto di Parma or similar
16ozParmigiano Reggiano Cheesefinely grated
3wholeeggs
1wholenutmegyes- one whole! Freshly ground
3tbspclarified butterfor browning the pork loin; clarified butter is best!
fine saltto taste; you probably won't need this as the other ingredients are quite salty!
Pasta Dough for Tortellini
21ozpasta flour
6wholeeggslarge
Instructions
Cook the Pork Loin
Brown all sides of the pork loin in a pan or skillet with a few tablespoons of butter. It's best to use clarified butter, due to its high smoke point.
11 oz pork loin, 3 tbsp clarified butter
Finish cooking the pork loin in a pre-heated (static) oven. Cook at 375° F (190°C) until the internal temperature of the pork has reached 140°F (60°C).
Cut the cooked pork loin to large pieces to prepare it for grinding.
Prepare the Tortellini Filling Ingredients
If needed, grate the Parmigiano cheese into a fine powder-like consistency.
16 oz Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
Grate/grind one whole nutmeg.
1 whole nutmeg
Make the Tortellini Filling
Using a food grinder, grind the following into a smooth paste: cooked pork loin, prosciutto, and mortadella.
11 oz prosciutto, 11 oz mortadella
To the ground meat, add: finely grated Parmigiano cheese and the nutmeg. Mix thoroughly.
Taste for salt. Add a pinch if needed. Then add the eggs (beaten). Mix to combine. The tortellini filling should be a compact and dry. Set aside.
fine salt, 3 whole eggs
Make the Pasta Dough
Add the pasta flour to a large bowl or work surface. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the whole eggs.
21 oz pasta flour, 6 whole eggs
Use a fork to beat the eggs into the flour, pulling in flour from the sides as you do this. Continue mixing the eggs with the flour until you've produced a shaggy dough.
Press the shaggy dough into a loose ball and transfer to a work surface (if you mixed in a bowl). Add flour as needed to create a dough that is not sticky. You may not need all of the flour that the recipe calls for. You may need a bit more.
Knead the pasta for about 10 minutes—until the dough ball is smooth and elastic. When you push gently in with your finger, the finished dough should spring back.
Cover and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes before stretching it.
Stretch the Pasta Dough
Work with one portion of pasta dough at a time (about 100 g). Keep the rest of the pasta dough covered when you are not working with it, to prevent it from drying out.
For each portion of pasta: Press the piece of pasta into a rough rectangle. Pass the pasta through a pasta roller at the widest setting. Fold the pasta into a letter—about 3/4 the width of the pasta roller. Then, pass the pasta through the roller at the widest setting one more time.
Continue passing the pasta through the pasta roller, reducing the roller width by one setting with each pass. Stretch the pasta in this way until the pasta is less than 1 mm in thickness—paper thin! The recipe precisely calls for the pasta to be 6/10 mm thick.
Shape the Tortellini
Transfer the thin sheets of pasta to a very lightly floured work surface.
Cut the sheets of pasta into 3 cm squares (1 ¼- 1½ inches).
Add a small amount of tortellini filling to the center of each square—about the size of a hazelnut. Add filling to all of the cut squares before starting to fold the tortellini. This will give the cut squares some moisture and prevent them from drying out as quickly.
For each square: Fold into a triangle, pressing the edges to seal. Fold the bottom half of the triangle (with the filling) up. A small amount of the triangle should still be visible at the top. Fold the right and left corners of the triangle around the tip of a small finger (like a ring). Press the corners together to seal the ring.
When all of the tortellini are folded and finished, stretch another portion of pasta and continue—until all of the filling has been used!
Transfer the finished tortellini to a lightly floured work surface, parchment paper or pasta drying rack.
After 1-2 hours of drying (outside of the refrigerator), you can freeze the tortellini. Freeze the tortellini without overlapping them. Once frozen, you can transfer the frozen tortellini to a freezer-safe bag or container with no worries about overlapping them—frozen tortellini won't stick together.
Cook the Tortellini
Cook the fresh or frozen tortellini for 4-5 minutes in gently boiling broth or salted water. Cook until the pasta dough is al dente.
Traditionally, these tortellini are also served in the same broth —creating tortellini soup!
Video
Notes
This recipe makes about 1000 tortellini! Preventing Pasta from Drying Too QuicklyPasta for tortellini is stretched very thin—paper thin! This means it can dry out quickly if you don't work quickly enough. Dry tortellini can't be folded or seal properly. Here are some tips to prevent that from happening:
stretch just one portion of pasta at a time (about 100 g)
add filling to all of the cut squares before starting to fold the tortellini. The moisture from the filling will prevent the pasta from drying out as quickly.
spray with water —Use a spray bottle with water if needed to rehydrate the square of pasta and to get a better seal!