Cappelletti, Romagna Style

Origin: Florence, Italy

Source: Pellegrino Artusi, 1891

History

Cappelletti take their name from their shape — little hats (cappello, 'hat') pinched from a round or square of egg pasta. They belong to the stuffed-pasta tradition of Emilia-Romagna and the neighboring Marche, with Romagna claiming them as a signature. Early references are scattered: a sixteenth-century Ferrara text linked to the Este court cook Cristoforo di Messisbugo is sometimes cited as an ancestor, while a firmer notice comes from 1811, when Leopoldo Staurenghi, the prefect of Forlì, recorded in his report for the Napoleonic Inquiry that at Christmas "in every family a pasta soup is made with a ricotta filling that is called cappelletti." The filling has always varied by purse and place. The Ferrara court favored meat, but the Romagnol home version leaned on cheese — ricotta, or ricotta blended with soft raviggiolo, bound with Parmesan, egg, nutmeg, and sometimes lemon zest. Artusi's 1891 "Cappelletti all'uso di Romagna" sits squarely in that cheese-forward line, offering capon breast, or pork loin when capon is lacking, as an enrichment rather than the base. He tied the dish to the Christmas table and to capon broth, the festive pairing still standard in Romagna. Cappelletti are often confused with Bologna's tortellini; the record separates them by home, filling, and their larger, thicker hat-shaped form rather than the tortellino's navel ring.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Combine ricotta (or half ricotta, half raviggiolo) with finely chopped butter-cooked capon breast, Parmesan, egg, nutmeg, a little spice, optional lemon zest and a pinch of salt; taste and adjust firmness with egg white/yolk.
  2. Roll a tender egg-and-flour sheet and cut discs about 64 mm across.
  3. Place filling in each disc, fold into a half-moon, then join the two ends together to form the little hat; moisten edges if the dough dries.
  4. Cook in capon broth and serve; about two dozen per moderate eater.

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