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Official Tourist Information Site of the Piacenza local editorial office

I turtéj (i tortelli)

Recipes

History of Tortelli

Tortelli in Piacenza have a tail, the tradition and the recognition of the Municipal Denomination is linked to the town of Vigolzone. They were born here, to welcome with a dish, beautiful to see as well as good to taste, the poet Francesco Petrarca when he visited the castle of the Anguissola family.
Stuffed dumplings already existed, but the typical braid was born on this occasion. It was 1351.

The festival

Every year since 1996, the Vigolzone tourist office has organised a festival dedicated to tortelli. Local housewives prepare hundreds of kilos of tortelli (weighing 10 g each), which can only be made by hand.

Recipes

Each housewife has her own recipe, but the tortelli of Vigolzone have acquired the Municipal Designation of Origin (De.Co.), for which a specific recipe has been registered.

Here is the recipe from “400 recipes of Piacenza cuisine” by Carmen Artocchini.

Recipe

TYPOLOGY
Main course
DIFFICULTY
medium
INGREDIENTS

(for 4-5 people):

for the dough:

  • 400 gr. of flour
  • 2 whole eggs
  • lukewarm water and salt;

for the filling:

  • 300 gr. of spinach or herbs
  • 200 gr. of ricotta cheese
  • 40 gr. of grated grana piacentino cheese
  • 1 whole egg
  • salt and nutmeg

for the sauce:

  • 100 gr. of melted butter
PREPARATION

Make a well in the flour, add the eggs and water, knead and roll out a thin sheet. Roll out the dough and roll it out thinly, dividing it into strips about 8 cm wide and into many small squares.

On each of these squares put a little of the filling prepared as follows: boil the spinach, drain it, squeeze it and mix it in a vegetable mill together with the ricotta. Then mix the past with the egg, the cheese and a little nutmeg. Place the square with the filling on the palm of your left hand (if you are not left-handed) and with the right hand fold the dough closing the tortello in a triangle, then turn the two corners to form a braid, or rather two tails.

Boil the tortelli in boiling salted water for about ten minutes, at least until they come to the surface of the pot. Drain and serve sprinkled with melted butter and grana piacentino cheese to taste.

Alternatively you can dress with tomato sauce and cheese or cream and grana cheese.

further information