Pizzoccherone - The last big tortellone

When yesterday I was making a giant tortellone, or maybe just a tortellone (let's hope that Accademia della Crusca contacts me...) with cabbage and cheese, just before biting the first bite, I realized that that stuffing had so much in common with Pizzoccheri that I could make them stuffed.
Pizzoccheri are traditional in Valtellina, and they're made of buckwheat flour and some wheat flour.
I'm very happy that my last gluten-free recipe for pasta worked. And it worked for this, too.

Yield: 6 servings

Dough

• 300gr buckwheat flour
• 150gr potato starch
• 150gr corn starch
• oil
• boiling water

Stuffing

• 500gr mashed potatoes, seasoned with oil and salt to taste
• 150gr cabbage, cut in chiffonade, stir fried with oil and garlic
• 100gr Casera Valtellinese, cut in cubes

Cook in boiling salted water, then add green beans. Here, there's beer sauce, too.

Yet another giant - Cabbage and provolone Giant tortellone

Potato and cabbage go very well together. Just add provolone and you can taste a melting strong taste you can't find anywhere else.


Yield: 6 servings

Dough:

• 200gr flour
• 2 eggs

Stuffing

• 600gr potato, boiled, peeled and mashed with oil, salt and pepper to taste
• 300gr cabbage, cut in chiffonade, stir fried with oil and garlic
• 200gr Provolone piccante, cut in cubes

Always the same: 15cm square of pasta sheet. The mashes potatoes, cabbage leaves and cheese. That's that simple!

Aglio olio e peperoncino here, no more.

Giant tortelloni with artichoke and gorgonzola

I wish it was easier to get fresh artichokes in Poland. Actually, I find it impossible. During this time, back in Italy you could find the last specimen. Here, you can be happy if you find them in jars. I'm kind of happy I got them, actually, but I could be much more.
As you have seen, this week is dedicated to size and simplicity. Potatoes are easy to find, they're cheap and tasty and they go well with almost anything.

Yield: 6 servings

Dough:

• 200gr flour
• 2 eggs

Stuffing

• 600gr potato, boiled, peeled and mashed with oil, salt and pepper to taste
• 18 quarters of artichokes in oil
• 180gr Gorgonzola in cubes

Potatoes, then artichokes and Gorgonzola cubes on 15cm square of pasta

Make giant tortelloni

Cook in boiling salted water, drain and toss in a frying pan with some browned butter. Grate some Parmigiano or Grana on top and garnish with parsley and dill.

A big quickie - Giant tortelloni with feta cheese and garlic

Here's a quick and very easy recipe for a stuffing, yet very tasty.
After all, there are times we don' want to do more than chop a vegetable. This time you've got to chop just two...

Yield: 6 servings

Dough:

• 200gr flour
• 2 eggs

Stuffing

• 600gr potato, boiled, peeled and mashed with oil, salt and pepper to taste
• 300gr feta cheese
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• dill, finely chopped

Spread the stuffing in the center of a 15cm square of pasta, starting from the mashed potato.

Once again, make a giant tortellone.

Cook in boiling salted water. Season with extra-virgin olive oil, grated pistachio nuts and grated orange zest.

Call any vegetable - Vegan giant tortelloni with potatoes and mushrooms

The vegan option for the giant thing that  I want to become tortellone and set up a different semantic about pasta making is still based on a potato stuffing. Yet the dough is this time made with Manitoba flour, something completely not italian, from Canada even.

But if you don't use eggs, you'll need some extra strength, and that is assured by a lot of gluten. Thus Manitoba.

Yield: 6 servings

Dough

• 200gr flour
• water
• oil

Stuffing

• 600gr boiled potatoes, mashed, peeled and seasoned with oil and salt
• 200gr mushrooms, stir fried with onion and garli, sprinkled with chopped parsley

Put potatoes, then mushrooms.

Close on 15cm pasta sheet.

Cook in salted boiling water, then season with a rough pesto made with walnuts, rosemary and garlic . Top with with cranberries and parsley.

Sweet giant - Giant tortelloni with ricotta, caramelized red onion and poppy seeds

I was planning to use sweet potatoes for this week's sweet alternative, but unfortunately it was impossible to find them. The recipe would have been quite different, but I'll leave it for future proposals.
So I used some of the ricotta I had left in the fridge and adjusted the stuffing accordingly. The inspiration came from the jam made from red onions of Tropea that too I couldn't find nor did I have time to make. But as we know, by using the Maillard reaction we can turn our onions to something sweet.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Dough

• 200gr flour
• 2 eggs

Stuffing

• 500gr ricotta
• 3 red onions thinly chopped and gently fried in oil until very soft
• poppy seeds

Put ricotta, then onion and top with poppy seeds on 15cm squares of pasta sheet.

Cook in lightly salted water, then toss in a frying pan with caramelized apple slices. Sprinkle with powdered cinnamon.

In search of a bigger name: giant tortellone or just tortellone?

When I was working for Biagi, in Bologna, we had to make for the restaurant at least 5kg of Biagini every week. They are tortellini so small you can't imagine. You don't want to figure yourself making them. Unless you love this job of course.
We, me and my two colleagues, once had to make 26kg of them in three days for a wedding.
Imagine going to sleep and dream you're closing tortellini. Then you wake up and you go to do it for real.

As said before, in italian -ino (or -ina for female) is the desinence for a small thing, whilst -one (or -ona) for a big one.
So the medium sized thing would be a tortello.
There isn't such a thing. You can find it, but most of the time is a raviolo.
One day we'll see the difference.

What happens if you add some centimeters to the pasta square you are cutting?
There is already around a thing called Raviolone. It's a big raviolo of course.
So how can you call a very big tortellone? Tortelloneone?
What if it becomes a tortellone, and what we once called tortellone becomes a tortello?

Yield: 6 servings

Dough

• 200gr flour
• 2 eggs

Stuffing

• 600gr of potatoes, cooked and peeled
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 slices of your favorite cheese
• chive, thinly chopped
• salt
• pepper
• oil

Mash the potato and add some oil or butter to make it creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the slice of cheese, the puree, the chive and the yolk on a 15cm sheet of pasta.

Make a tortelloneone (ora just a tortellone?)

Cook in boiling salted water. Toss in a frying pan with some oil and mushrooms. Grate some Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana on the top.

For special effects, open it from the center, to see the running yolk coming out.