Yes, making tortellini is hard. Deal with it. It's no harder than living for 9 months in a stomach and shooting out through a birth canal and you all got through that, so put your tortellini mitts on and meet me in the second paragraph.
Good. I'm glad you took a leap of faith and decided to meet me here. You're strong, resilient, and adventurous. YOU are going to make T O R T E L L I N I. Which makes you better than anyone else. It makes you WONDERFUL.
Making tortellini is like bungee jumping. You only need to do it once to say you did it. Then, if you like it ... you can do it again. If you don't like it, you at least have bragging rights. I think you'll be surprised at how many times you can bring up the subject of making your own tortellini at dinner parties, soccer practices or even during a breast exam (prostate exam for the fellas).
Now that I've shown you how to make pasta dough, and how to roll it out all you need now is the traditional meat filling for the tortellini and a lesson on how to shape them.
You can use this same filling for making ravioli. But then you wouldn't have the honour of tortellini maker bestowed upon you. Your choice.
The Cuisinart (food processor) is important in this filling. You cannot just use the ground meat. It needs to be like a soft paste. If you don't have a food processor you can try doing small batches with a stick blender if you have one but I'm honestly not sure how that would work.
Kay. Now the fun part. We're going to make tortellini! Roll up your sleeves and pick out your swear words.
Lay out your rolled pasta dough (for tortellini I use setting #7) and cut the ends square.
Using a pizza cutter cut your dough into widths of 1½ - 2" in length, then again crosswise so you have squares of pasta. Put the scraps into a plastic baggie or under plastic wrap to roll out again later.
Take your filling out of the refrigerator and get a tiny spoon. A ¼ teaspoon works well.
Using your teaspoon shape the filling into small balls and place them in the centre of the squares.
Don't be tempted to use too much filling.
Fold the dough in half to form a triangle over the filling. Gently press all the air out. This step is very important. If you don't do it your tortellini will break when you boil them.
Take a triangle of tortellini and squish the filling upwards with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon. Just a little bit.
It will look kind of like the Flying Nun's hat. I say that with all the confidence of someone who has never seen the Flying Nun, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
Stick the end of a wooden spoon into the tortellini and push the two ends around the spoon.
Press together with your thumb to seal.
Slip the tortellini off of the handle.
You have now formed a classic tortellini.
You have a few more to go.
Homemade Tortellini
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 ounces ground turkey can substitute chicken
- 4 ounces ground beef
- 4 ounces ground pork
- 4 ounces prosciutto finely diced
- 2 ounces mortadella finely diced*
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cups Parmesan cheese grated
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Heat the butter and oil over high heat in a large pan until the butter foams. Add all of the ground meat (turkey, beef and pork). Brown and cook until almost done.
- Add the prosciutto and mortadella and cook for a few minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool.
- Run the mixture through a food processor until it's like a paste.
- Add the beaten egg and parmesan cheese. Mix.
- Add salt and pepper and ¼ teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. Mix.
- Refrigerate until you're ready to start making your tortellini.
Notes
Nutrition
TORTELLINI MAKING TIPS:
- Only roll out a small amount of dough at a time. It dries out quickly.
- As soon as you cut your dough into squares cover it all in plastic wrap. Keep the dough covered unless you're actually forming your tortellini.
- If your dough does dry out you can rub a little beaten egg around the edges of the dough to seal it.
- If you get discouraged and things are slowing down, put on some good music. Good music helps everything. You're making TORTELLINI! What a wonderful, wonderful world.
Still confused? Watch the video on how to make tortellini ...
How to Make Tortellini
How to shape perfect tortellini with a wooden spoon handle.
My family recipe which I have been making from early age so for over 70 years has the 3 meats, pork, beef (steak), and chicken - with some celery, and garlic, one egg and butter all cooked together then run through a meat grinder. Add nutmeg and parmesan cheese. I can't seem to have the little meatball hold together in the dough while it cooks in the broth. Should I add another egg to the mix? There are no weights given in my recipe so over the years I probably have added more meats then previous. Any suggestions welcome.
Looking forward to trying this Karen. I lived in Italy and meat filled tortellini is hard to come by and I haven't found a good tortellini en brodo since I left the continent (no pressure) :-)
Well if you want more authentic do *just* the beef broth. I prefer it with half and half (beef and chicken). :) ~ karen!
What a great post! I took a pasta - making class with my dad. We love making pasta for our whole family together. Can't wait to try your recipe.
Do you know how many tortellini roughly this recipe makes?
Thank you
I wish I could tell you Diana, unfortunately the answer is simply "not enough", lol. I only make it once a year because it's quite a big job and the only thing I remember is thinking that was a LOT of work for that amount of tortellini. It makes several zip loc baggies full. But since you only use 20 or so tortellini for a bowl of Tortellini en Brodo it's enough for a year's worth for a family of 2. ~ karen!
Ok thanks! I'm mentally planning on making a bunch and freezing, and giving some to some neighbors who help with my furbabies. I just dont want to undershoot the amount I make. Looking forward to trying them out!
I grew up eating "tu-tays" that my Italian great-grandmother made, and when I was much older, found out they were just tortellini! We have an old family recipe that my uncle still uses for family meals, but he makes ravioli shapes instead. My great-grandma always said "tu-tay" meant "chicken butt," and they really do have that shape.
Sure, these are a pain in the tail to make, and very time-consuming, but it is just another lost art going by the wayside. My girls and I have made a poor attempt at these, but we all agreed we wanted to learn so we could carry on the tradition. Sometimes it is about the time you spend together doing things like this, keeping family traditions, and I think that has way more value. Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome Michelle! They are indeed time consuming, lol. But sooooo good and worth it. :) ~ karen!
Thank You!
You're welcome! ~ karen
This is a great tutorial! The best I have seen and thank you so much!!! Now I think I am going to make some tortellini for dinner and surprise my family.
I just found this, and it nearly made me cry! I used to make these with my Nonne. One of my greatest accomplishments was graduating from a stuffer (the kids put the filling onto the dough) to a folder. I have since learned how to make the filling just like Nonne, but for the life of me I can not get the damn dough like she did. I admit when folding all those little tortellini I resort to the won ton wrappers too. ;)
I usually use won ton wrappers, but I think I need to try making the pasta myself. I am heading to amazon to put the pasta maker attachment on my wish list...
So are the wraps the same?
Geeze, if I wanted to go to that much trouble in the kitchen, I'd bake a fancy dessert. (Your tortellini do look yummy, though. I'd be happy to eat them.)
Thanks so much for this! I've made my own ravioli before, but this looks like a whole new level of fun!
I remember making these with a long-ago boyfriend. We were making tortelloni, which are a bit bigger, so we used our fingers instead of the wooden spoon. The key, as we discovered halfway through, was to wrap the "wings" of the triangle sort of down, rather than around, the finger. I mean, you achieve the same thing with your pushing up of the filling, but I discovered that said boyfriend was simply bringing the triangle ends around to form a ring with the triangle standing up around his finger, but I was putting the base of the triangle against my finger with the triangle sticking out sideways from my finger so that when I wrapped the ends together, they creased the top point down and created the proper shape.
I HAVE made tortellini before... but, "around a wooden spoon handle" was the missing step! Thanks, as always!
Given that I live in a land with no tortellini anywhere, I may just have to do this sometimes. I've already made ravioli a bunch of times, but tortellini was always my favourite.
They also don't carry my favourite brand of tomato sauce here, so I've had to make my own. I'm sure I'm missing something though, so I'm looking forward to your recipe. Knowing you, it will be perfect!
I don't really use a recipe for red sauce. I just saute some onions and garlic, chuck some of my home pressed tomato "juice" into a pan with a few diced up tomatoes, oregano, basil and a tablespoon of tomato paste. Maybe a bay leaf. Then simmer an hour or so depending on the surface area of the pan. ... ~ karen!
I cook a few fresh pork neck bones in my sauce and when done, I remove bones, and put meat back into the sauce. Great flavor!
p.s. Sorry but I have to comment. Karol....homemade dough and "meat paste" put together and cooked up with an alfredo sauce is about as heavenly as you can get. Add some homemade peach icecream and who even needs a bucket list anymore? Just sayin'
Oh Tracie, I agree, it is one of my favorites TO EAT! I just don't have the desire or patience to make them. :) We have a fabulous local Italian restaurant right up the street from us who make the best food, and I gladly pay big bucks to enjoy it. No cussing involved.
Wow! My favorite is tortellini, and I am so going to make it if I ever get a pasta maker. And a food processor....the list is growing Karen! It does look labour intensive, but well worth it I'm sure. I've been making pot stickers lately and the're not exactly quick either, but mmmm! By the way, I've taken your advice about running! Well, walking really fast at any rate. As soon as the rain stops. Ok, I've put my runners in the car and I'm ready to go at a moments' notice.....I'm thinking lunch breaks would work well. I'd eat less too. I'll let you know how it goes... :)
Tracie. Stop it. Just stop it right now. Once you go out for your first run/jog/walk/sloth trot you'll see how much better you feel for the WHOLE day afterwards. It's quite amazing. Now go. Right now. I don't care what time it is or if you ARE in your pajamas. Go. Sloth trot like the wind! ~ karen
These are adorable! I must try them sometime. I love cheese tortellini!