Tortelli di Zucca
Dal Pescatore
Chef: Nadia Santini
Country: Italia
City: 46013 - Runate-Cannetto sull’Oglio
Address:
(+39) 0376723001santini@dalpescatore.com
This is classic Italian cuisine in its pure form. The style of this dish is different, elegant and flavorful, while maintaining the essence of the family recipe inherited by Nadia Santini. A vocational chef distinguished by her delicacy, harmony, sensitivity… and her innate good taste. Not to mention her immaculate style and nutritional consciousness. All these qualities and many more, like the magic touches that somehow convert a simple dish into something complex, are present in this pasta dish, one of the most exquisite and virtuosic in all of Italy. It is sweet, yet there is a hint of bitterness to it as well. Creaminess and texture abound. The traditional flavors and aromas are expressed with extreme exquisiteness. In short, a savory sweet that has a bit of genius and a lot of perfection to it.
The Recipe
Ingredients
(serves 4)
- 150g pumpkin, cooked and pureed
- 20g amaretti*, ground (in the past, peach or apricot pits stored from summer were used)
- *Type of Italian almond cookie made from bitter almonds
- 50g fruit confit in mustard
- 20g Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
- pepper, salt, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
for the pasta
- 1 whole egg + 1 yolk (60g + 30g)
- 100g 00 bleached flour
- 1 pinch of salt
for the seasoning
- 50g butter
- 20g Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
Method
Choose a good pumpkin and cut a slice of about 300g. Cook it in water with a bit of salt and sugar (to compensate for the loss of sugar while cooking) for 30 minutes or until soft, as a boiled potato. Remove from the pot, cut away the rind and pass through a puree sieve. Combine the resulting pumpkin puree with the amaretti, the minced fruit confit, the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and all of the spices. Once the ingredients are well mixed, allow the preparation to sit refrigerated until the pasta is made.
Shape the flour into a fountain and break a whole egg and a yolk in the center.
Knead well until you have a homogeneous, porous dough.
Spread the pasta with the help of a machine or rolling pin and cut into large squares, 8cm on a side.
Spoon a bit of filling (6-8g) into the center and close in the shape of a triangle, using the following method:
1) join the two diagonal tips
2) fold over once again
3) press well around the filling
Submerge in boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
Season with butter and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Other recommendations:
1) The pumpkin should have considerable weight;
2) it should have deep grooves and a relatively dry peduncle;
3) it should be yellow-green in color and have a rough, matte surface.
If, once passed through the puree sieve, the pumpkin puree is a little watery, place in a linen or cotton bag and press until it loses a good portion of its water.
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