Anolini, Parma Style

History

Anolini are small filled pasta from the Emilian cities of Parma and Piacenza, served in a rich meat broth and long tied to Christmas and Easter family feasts. Both cities claim the dish and the record does not settle the rivalry: the name is usually traced to the Latin annulus ('little ring') for its rounded shape, the earliest reference is credited to the chronicler Salimbene de Adam in 1284, and the papal cook Bartolomeo Scappi recorded anolini in his Opera of 1570. Artusi's 1891 version, sent to him by a Parma lady who called them 'di rito' for the family solemnities of Christmas and Easter, follows the older Parma method: a piece of beef is larded and braised for eight or nine hours until it yields only four or five spoonfuls of a concentrated sugo, and that sauce - not minced meat - is worked with toasted breadcrumbs, grated Parmigiano, an egg and nutmeg into the filling. The braised beef itself is then eaten separately as a stracotto. This sets anolini apart from Bologna's tortellini and Romagna's cappelletti, which differ in shape and carry pork or cheese fillings. Many modern anolini, above all the Piacenza style, instead mince the cooked meat into the stuffing and build the braise on soffritto, red wine and tomato.

Ingredients

• g lean boneless beef from the leg
• g fatback (lardone)
• g butter
• onion
• red wine
• spices
• g breadcrumb of day-old bread
• g grated parmesan
• nutmeg
• egg
• eggs
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

1. Lard the beef with fatback, tie and season with salt, pepper and spices; brown it in butter with the chopped onion in a pot.
2. Add two ladlefuls of broth, seal the pot under paper and a bowl of red wine, and braise gently 8-9 hours to a concentrated juice; sieve and reserve it for the next day.
3. For the filling, work toasted breadcrumb (100 g), grated parmesan (50 g), nutmeg, one egg and the reserved meat juice into a smooth paste.
4. Roll three eggs' worth of soft pasta sheet, cut with the fluted disc and fold into little half-moons around the filling; yields about a hundred.
5. Cook in broth or serve dry like tortellini; eat the leftover braised meat separately with a vegetable garnish.