Emilia-Romagna · Soup
Tortellini in Brodo di Cappone
- Advanced
- 1 h 30 m
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, richness that coats and comforts, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 300 g farina 00, plus more for the board
- 3 whole eggs, 55 g to 60 g each, at room temperature
- 1 capon, about 1.8 kg, or a 1.5 kg boiling hen
- 400 g beef shin or brisket
- 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, left whole
- 150 g pork loin, in 2 cm cubes
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 80 g mortadella di Bologna, chopped
- 80 g prosciutto di Parma, chopped
- 120 g Parmigiano Reggiano, 24 month, grated fine
- 1 whole egg, for the filling
- quarter of a nutmeg, grated
- 10 g fine salt for the broth
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Fresh pastaKneading doughSearing: the hard crustSalted water & the float testSkimming: foam, fat and a clear broth
The words inside
Prosciutto di Parma & San DanieleMortadella BolognaParmigiano-Reggiano
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · celery
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Cover the capon, beef and vegetables with 4 litres of cold water and hold at 90C (194F), never a rolling boil, skimming until the surface is clear and the liquid is pale gold, about 3 hours; strain, chill, and lift off the set disc of fat. 180 min
- Brown the pork loin in the butter until the cubes are deep gold and stiff to the press, cool, then mince fine with the mortadella and prosciutto and work in the Parmigiano, egg and nutmeg until the paste holds a fingerprint without weeping.
- Mound the flour, break in the eggs, knead 10 minutes until the ball is smooth and springs back slowly, then rest it under an upturned bowl for 30 minutes. 10 min
- Roll with a long pin, turning and stretching outward, until you can read newsprint through the sheet; cut 3 cm squares and keep the rest under cloth.
- Put a chickpea of filling on each square, fold to a triangle pressing the air out from the filling to the edge, then wrap it round your little finger and pinch the two points until the cuff stands up on its own.
- Drop them into barely trembling broth and cook until they rise and the chalky core at the pinched knot is gone, 3 to 4 minutes. 4 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Skimming: foam, fat and a clear broth 73 recipes
- It is held below a rolling boil for the whole time. Agitation drives fat and fine protein into the liquid as an emulsion, and nothing skimmed afterwards will take them back out.
- The grey foam that rises in the first minutes is lifted off and discarded rather than stirred back in.
- Fat is taken from the surface where it gathers, the pot moved off the centre of the heat if that is what it takes to collect it in one place.
- The liquid is visibly clearer at the end than it was at the start: it is possible to see down into it.
- Nothing lifted off goes back in. What was skimmed is discarded, not tipped back once the ladle is full.
Where it goes wrong The pot was allowed to boil, usually while something else was being attended to. Fat and protein emulsify into the liquid under agitation and cannot be lifted off afterwards, so the finished broth stays cloudy and greasy however patiently it is skimmed from then on.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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