I spent the afternoon with friends and had a wonderful time making these. Sort of an annual tradition now. Then of course, we had to have some for dinner with homemade bread and a big salad. Ohhh, it was good 😋
Filling:
3 pkgs. frozen spinach – thaw, drain and squeeze dry in paper towels
9 oz cream cheese
3 eggs1 c grated parmesan cheese
1 c fresh Italian parsley chopped –
if using dry you can use a little less
if using dry you can use a little less
1 t salt
2 t ground black pepper
Mix all and form into ¾” size balls.
Spoglia – egg noodle dough:
4 c flour
1¼ c eggs
¼ c water
1 t olive oil
Put flour in large bowl. Pour eggs, water and oil in center. Mix, kneed. Roll flat or use a pasta machine to make long 3” wide strips of thin dough. Cut into 3” squares, put a ball of filling in each. Bring opposite corners together like a triangle. Pinch and seal filling inside, twist lower corners together. Boil 15-20 minutes.
Put in a baking dish, cover with Parmesan and garlic butter. Brown 4-5 minutes in the broiler.
Put in a baking dish, cover with Parmesan and garlic butter. Brown 4-5 minutes in the broiler.
Rosa Fiocchi's tortellacci recipe uses ricotta cheese, not cream cheese, and it does not use any nutmeg.
ReplyDeleteThis is true. The nutmeg is in her tortellini. But this sounds like an interesting variation on her recipe
DeleteI think from time to time the recipe gets tweaked a bit, but the day I was helping Mick and Karen make these the recipe said cream cheese and nutmeg. There is some room for substitutions though, it's a pretty forgiving recipe. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteMick's Aunt Nita interviewed her mother Rosa and gave all the nieces and nephews the recipe which did not contain cream cheese or nutmeg. But as I said above this sounds like an interesting variation on Rosa's recipe.
DeleteOh, the great memories I have of these tortellaccis!!! Patricia S.
ReplyDeleteI smiled and laughed through the comments knowing they were written by our first cousins. I still use my Aunt Nita (late 70's)red construction paper covered hand typed recipe book. Mine is tattered at the yarn tied seams and food stained on the hand typed pages. I have to keep it in a plastic bag to keep it all together. Much like all of the variations in our history, I am wondering the further story in the differences.
ReplyDeleteAfter making a batch of tortellacci from this book a few weeks ago, I had decided I was going to "zing-up" the filling with a little nutmeg (since I love it in the tortellini)and searched the web for ideas. I love the connection of finding your post. Maybe "big D" sent me that way. Now I will be happily making Mick Fiocchi's Grandmother Rosa Fiocchi's recipe for Christmas dinner with the kids.
Hah! This makes you "an authentic Italian cook" Lisa Enstrom McConnell. I refer to an authentic Italian cook as any person of Italian ancestry who cooks.
ReplyDeleteAunt Nita started doing the cookbooks in the early 70's. She followed grandma around and made her stop so Nita could measure. My mother did the same thing in the early 40's, and I have those recipes as well. That's where the cream cheese comes from, and the nutmeg I think. So Rosa simply made tortellacci. She didn't follow any recipe. I assume her mother didn't either.
This recipe has changed even since 2011. I really like nutmeg, and I use even more pepper now as well. And I don't each much wheat, so I now make a sort of lasagna for myself with rice lasagna and tortellacci filling. Cover it with parmigiana and garlic butter, then broil. Mmmmm
Karen and I had Tortellone (the Bolognese name) in a small trattoria in 1994. They were fabulous, but don't recall trying to figure out what was in them.
Okay you guys!! This is wild!! Most of my posts have 5-10 views, every so often a recipe will get a few hundred. HOWEVER, I just checked my stats on Rosa's Tortellacci and. . .are you ready for this?? 2,282 views. . .That's two-thousand, two-hundred, eighty-two views!!! What the heck?? Is there some sort of Italian Food Mafia I need to know about? Thank you all for being here . . . 😍 . . . Lin
ReplyDeleteLooks alot like mine, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI am using your grandmother's recipe tonight. I am assuming that you are probably the Fiochi's from Highwood/Highland Park. The only thing that I would add to your recipe is to make sure that you use 00 flour to make the dough. The recipe is delicious. Evviva Sant'anna!
ReplyDelete