Tortellini In Cream DOES Exist In Italy… BUT It Needs Help

On Christmas Eve you do one of two things…you go out, or you stay in. In my family we make Pasta.

And in Bologna, there are two famous pasta dishes - Tortellini In Brodo, which is basically synonymous with Christmas, and Tortellini alla Pana - special in its own right, but for other events outside of the holiday season. One of them is goated and perfect… the other one…needs a little help. And in my humble opinion, what’s missing from Tortellini alla Pana is a little help from Tortellini in Brodo and it’s the pasta I like to serve on Christmas Eve.

Holiday Plan of Attack (ALL MY HOLIDAY RECIPES IN ONE PLACE)

[popposoft]

I'm from Bologna and I can say for sure that you prepared a 100% traditional tortellini alla panna from scratch. Pure perfection. Just nit-picking: don't use mortadella with pistacchio, just plain mortadella. The broth reduction is a very nice twist, I will try it for sure, it looks delicious. I don't disagree with you, tortellini in brodo is the preferred way to eat this delicious (and expensive - around 45€/kg) dish. This is for a reason: you always cook tortellini inside capon broth. Pasta will absorb all the good flavours, and the fillings will get the final cooking, getting all the ingredients to marry each other. Even if, like in this case, you will drain them from the broth and finish them in the cream sauce. This will keep to a minimum any need for the broth reduction. Tortellini are too "noble" to be cooked in water. You will in fact lose all the flavour you will recover from the broth reduction. But as I said, I don't disagree with this approach. I'm more than curious to add this twist to my next tortellini alla panna. You're great my man, I find all your recipes spot on with tradition, you provide very good explanations and your videos are very entertaining and informative. Quality content. Keep up your great work! Love from Italy! Happy new 2025!

[kylemahoney]

I lived in Bologna for two years from 2022-2024 and the food culture is so amazing. So many iconic foods originating in Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna region. This is a great amalgamation of those two tortellini dishes and looks delicious!

[monkeymugs]

My wife always bought pre grated Parmigiano. Then, she and my son asked me to make Alfredo. They brought out the heavy cream and i told them that that isn't necessary. I bought a good 12mo parmigiana. They both told me i was crazy!! Then i put it all together. They said i ruined store bought Alfredo sauce lol. I told them never buy pre grated cheese. If you want it to taste good, put in the effort!!

[swanification]

Bologna is my favourite Italian city and this is my favourite pasta dish. When you said you were going to tweek it i winced. But once again you have nailed it. You are truly gifted. I'm definitely trying this one soon.

[diveneziat]

In Abruzzo we add piselli (peas) and prosciutto cotto (ham) to the panna to make tortellini alla panna con piselli e prosciutto cotto! One of my favs.
Your dish is amazing. Love it.

[bkm]

Way to my heart, the addition of the Brodo glacé was a great idea Stephen. Totally agree about pork, the only way for me to enjoy is when it’s slightly pink with good moisture. Great Class in how to make tortellini Stephen, couldn’t have asked for a better teacher! Thank you 🎄💕👍

[jpbanksnj]

That Brodo reduction is pure genius! My mind is filled with lots of potential uses already...

[Greyskydies]

Merry Christmas! I’m officially in love with this channel!

[battiekoda]

@7:06: That peice of bone, there? In my house, that's the chef's chew-toy! 😂

Also, my This looks AMAZING!!!! Thank you for sharing this with us. ❤❤❤❤❤❤

[nedlog]

My wife is Italian. Always, always, pasta for Christmas feasts. Love the family get togethers. (big family). Can you say homemade gnocchi? Mostly potatoes and a little ricotta. Mmmmm, I'm hungry now.

[thomasdibben]

Perfect video. I would add only one thing. Fresh cracked black pepper, or a pinch white pepper, followed by your cheese to finish the dish.

[ginocanzonetta]

This looks absolutely delicious. I would love to try this, if I get the courage...You are AMAZING...

[curiouscatlabincgetsworrie]

That looks testworthingly good!!! So I saved a link! :D
On pork, or rather the overcooked version you can come across in lunch restaurants where they try to keep say pork chops warm from 11:00-14:00 and you hear this "eee-ooo-ee-ooo-ee-ooo-" sound when you try to cut it with your knife. That's so sad haha! I've stopped ordering pork when possible for that reason but I love it at home.

[Acadian_Proud]

9:41 Can you please add the link to the ‘tortellini in Brodo’ you mentioned during the video?

[CJtoTaste]

Wonderfully made! I'm not Italian, but I was wondering—what if you cubed up the cold, concentrated brodo and folded it into the tortellini filling? It could turn them into soup dumpling-style tortellini tossed in the parm cream. Would love to hear your thoughts on this idea!

[marcomaio]

I grew up thinking of "tortellini panna e prosciutto" as a quick weekday kind of dish (with store-bought tortellini), but I really like the idea of doing a brodo reduction, I might try this myself with other dishes. Greetings from Italy

[bscheirman]

This looks so good. Going to have to make these tortellini!

Teeny tiny nit: urls don't have "backslashes" -- it's just a "slash".

[orfitna]

Recipe aside, very nice method/instruction video. Thank you!!

[pe]

The traditional dish is with the broth. But tortellini with the cream is the dish I always ordered when I was a kid, at every village festival

[EnricoMartelli]

My grandma actually uses 1:1 for all the meats in the filling, but adds also chicken! She said it's to cut some of the saltyness, but I think it was an old tradition, back in the old days, when prosciutto was more expensive, and people from the coutryside were better off cutting some of that with chiken meat, which was more available and cheap. Still taste very good, actualy they are the best :D