I often tell you stories and tastes of the Via Emilia, the road of Roman origin that runs through Emilia-Romagna from Piacenza to Rimini. Anyway you should know that my region also has another main highway, less busy and quieter but just as significant, the Po River.
Significant Italian gastronomes and writers have written about the slow change of life and habits along the river, one of the most important in Italy. That piece of flat land that goes up from the sea for hundreds of kilometers continually gives new landscapes, customs, dialects, flavors, and recipes. Despite the difference, there are common traits among the inhabitants on either side of the Great River and common ingredients such as pumpkins, pigs, rice, and sturgeons.
The Po River rises in Piedmont and ends in the Adriatic Sea as it flows through Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia Romagna. Along its passage, everywhere you can find rice and pumpkin recipes. On the other hand, most of the people of the Po Valley lived on these ingredients, as well as eel and river fish, which were cheap and accessible to all.
Fresh pasta stuffed with pumpkin is an ancient dish that mixes sweet and spicy flavors and has a unique history since, although it originated as a recipe from poor peasant cuisine, it also won favor at the tables of Renaissance courts.
Pumpkin Tortelli and Cappellacci
This dish has several centuries of life.
Cristoforo Messisbugo, the cook at the Gonzaga court where he worked called by the Marquise of Mantua Isabella d’Este, first published a recipe for pumpkin tortelli in 1549.
A few decades later, in 1584, tortelli and cappellacci both found acceptance in the treatise of Giovan Battista Rossetti, a cook at the Estense court.
The dispute between Mantua and Ferrara over the paternity of the dish is as old as the spread of the pumpkin in that area (although Isabella was born and raised in Ferrara, as was Messisbugo himself, who learned the art of cooking from his father, already a cook for the Este family of Ferrara).
The tradition of pumpkin tortelli is familiar to many other Po Valley localities, especially in the Parma and Cremona areas, again Emilia-Romagna versus Lombardia. That has been possible thanks to the cooks and pasta makers who, after working at the courts of Mantua and Ferrara, migrated to other courts, helping to spread the knowledge of the recipe, a combination of sweet and savory that represents a rare case of survival of a recipe from Renaissance cuisine.
Pumpkin cappellacci pasta
The name contains a reference to the farmer’s hat. The pasta dough is eggs and flour; the pasta sheet is thin to highlight the delicate flavor of the filling. Another thing you need to know is that while the filling of tortelli has many variations depending on the place of origin, cappellacci stuffing doesn’t change ever.
The filling of Mantua tortelli includes pumpkin, mustard, and amaretti biscuits. Elsewhere, you can also find raisins, orange marmalade, chopped candied fruit, and anise liqueur. Cappellacci from Ferrara are the only ones with a simple pumpkin filling. They are the least sweet and spicy, although the people of Ferrara mitigate the pumpkin’s sweetness with the seasoning by choosing a flavorful meat sauce.
The sheet is rough and hand-rolled; the pasta machine seems to turn it easier, but the texture becomes too smooth. The filling is rich and simple at the same time: baked pumpkin, lots of grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano to bind, and nutmeg that you have to feel.
Among the pumpkin tortelli, I admit a preference for cappellacci topped just with the meat sauce. However, fall calls for melted butter, Parmigiano, and a small sparkling truffle.
Buona cucina, Monica
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Pumpkin Cappellacci Pasta
Ingredients
Filling
- 400 g of cooked chestnut pumpkin pulp
- 100 g of grated Parmigiano
- 1/2 teaspoon of powdered nutmeg
- a pinch of salt
Pasta dough
- 200 g 00 flour
- 2 eggs, about 100 g
Instructions
Filling
- Remove skin, seeds, and filaments from pumpkin cooked in the oven until soft and mash the pulp with a fork.Mix the pumpkin pulp, Parmigiano, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Cover it and let the filling rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. If possible, make the stuffing a day in advance to get a more compact and flavorful mixture.If the dough is too soft, add a little bread crumbs.
Pasta dough and Cappellacci
- Pour the flour into a bowl, make a hole in the center, and add the eggs. Mix first with a fork and then with your hands.
- Transfer the dough to a clean surface and knead it with regular hand motions for about 15 minutes until the mixture is smooth and soft but not sticky.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours at room temperature. If storing overnight, refrigerate, then leave to room temperature before using.
- After resting, flour the cutting board and dough.
- Flatten the ball with the palm of your hand and begin rolling out the pasta dough, starting from the center toward the sides and rotating it continuously (at least at the beginning) to impart a regular shape.
- When the sheet becomes wide, wrap it around the rolling pin to rotate it.
- Roll it out thinly and then cut out squares of pasta sheet 6cm per side.
- Arrange a walnut of filling in the center. Clip two tips of the square together, forming a triangle. Press the edges with your fingers to close the cappellacci. Join the other two tips, as if making cappelletti or tortellini, and press them together.
- Let the dough dry on floured baking sheets for 30 minutes.
- Cook cappellacci in boiling salted water for 3 minutes or until they rise to the surface. Drain and season with meat sauce or butter and sage.
