We took this video a few summers ago in the country side of Vicenza while making tortellini with Zia Anna and Zio Bruno. MMMMhhhh those tortellini!!!!  Zia Anna works also in a famous restaurant and she’s literally a tortellini-factory!  I’m sharing also her fantastic filling recipe with 2  kinds of meat and 2 kinds of cold cuts! Vegetarians: make a filling with ricotta, parmesan, spinach, egg and nutmeg instead! or just a mix of different cheeses!

Making tagliatelle or pappardelle it really takes a few minutes (see my pasta fresca video/recipe) but making filled pasta, honestly, it’s more time consuming. It is not hard, just time-consuming. But the results will not disappoint. I know that this must seem a like an insane amount of work, but it does have some saving graces. One, you can divide the work into pieces and two, it can be done ahead of time. You can make the filling one day and refrigerate it,  and the next day, you can make the pasta. You keep the tortellini refrigerated for a few days until you’re ready to eat them or freeze them and they will last for many months.

Within Italy, tortellini are practically synonymous with the region of Emilia-Romagna and more specifically with the cities of Bologna and Modena. And served in capon broth, they are a must on Christmas Day dinner tables in central and northern Italy.