PUMPKIN TORTELLI

Credits: Francesca Brambilla

Method

Choose a pumpkin, cut a thick slice of it and cook it in lightly salted water for 30 minutes, or until soft as a boiled potato. Add a little sugar to make up for what has been lost in the cooking. Remove the slice of pumpkin from the water, peel it and pass it through a food mill.

For the filling, add to the mashed pumpkin the amaretti, the chopped mustard fruit, grated Parmesan and all of the spices. Set aside to rest in a cool place until time to start making the pasta.

For the pasta, heap the flour on a breadboard, leaving a well in the centre; place the egg yolks in the well and work these ingredients to form a smooth, porous dough.

Roll the dough thin with a pasta machine or rolling pin; cut it into squares 3” per side. Heap a little of the filling (about 1/3 to 1/2 tablespoon) onto each square and close diagonally, bringing the two ends together, then fold again and press the edges firmly down around the filling.

Cook the tortelli in boiling water for 5 minutes; dress with butter and grated Parmesan and serve.

Pumpkin tortelli, a classic in the cuisine of the plains, are found from Ferrara to Cremona, and are the subject of culinary challenges destined to leave every cook certain of having made the world’ best tortelli! Today we use less butter and fewer amaretti than in the traditional version. The final result, however, depends above all on the pumpkin. Grandmother Bruna insists that you must choose a very heavyone. The variety utilised is yellow, slightly flattened and has evident ribbing.