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How to make the tortelli di zucca mantovani: Boil the
pieces of pumpkin in a small amount of water; drain, remove the skin
and pass through the sieve. Finely crush the macaroons, 30 g. of the
almonds and the fruit mustard; add these to the pumpkin with the
grated Parmesan and lemon juice; mix until obtaining a homogeneous
paste. Meanwhile, prepare the pastry as usual.
Cut into
squares and place a ball of stuffing on each and close as for agnoli.
The tortelli di zucca mantovani are cooked in boiling water for 3-5 minutes then
drained and dressed with melted butter and vino cotto. Then sprinkle
tortelli di zucca mantovani with grated Parmesan and the remainder of the finely crushed peach
almonds.
Recommended wine: Muller Thurgau; Franz Hans or Cantina Sociale
Vall'Isarco
Recipe proposed by Carlo and Romano Tamani
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Taken from "Di terra e di acqua" ed. Franco Angeli.
Tortelli di zucca mantovani
These tortelli with a pumpkin filling are surely the most emblematic
and representative element in Mantuan gastronomic culture. The
recipe for these tortelli di zucca is very old and is probably a
popular re-elaboration of the more noble agnolino in an attempted
reproduction at low cost (Alberini, 1987:32). Its origins are lost
in the flow of culinary history: in fact, no mention is made in
historical documents of its origin or the first appearance of this
dish, but "i tortelli" are, without shadow of a doubt, one of the
elements characterizing our city. Mantua could perhaps be imagined
without its lakes or the castle, but there could be no Christmas Eve
without these "pumpkin parcels" [Tassoni, 1964:263].
So this dish is protected by tradition and family culture,
handed down from mother to daughter, and this explains mostly why
the recipes for dishes belonging to family communication tend to
remain unchanged over the years while ingredients can vary within
the space of a few kilometers. In fact, the family cherishes the
secret of the mixture as a patrimony of originality and
acknowledgement, although respecting a common tradition.
The decidedly sweet taste of pumpkin is not appreciated by all:
generally, it appeals to those who have experienced a cuisine of
contrasts abounding in sweet/salt and sour/sweet combinations.
Antitheses are not uncommon in our cuisine and belong to the more
noble traditions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Redon, Sabban,
Serventi, 1994), as well as to the frequent confusion in popular
cookery. When speaking of tortelli, so many tastes are integrated
because the sweetness of the pumpkin is matched by the salty
Parmesan cheese, the bitterness of the macaroons, the hotness of the
mustard with the addition of the oriental taste of nutmeg. So this
is a strange dish, needing a certain psychological preparation, also
because no two tortelli are alike, even if you go a few meters from
one home kitchen to another, or from one small town to another.
At Il Bersagliere and at the Ambasciata (situated at opposite
ends of our province, since one is in the north and the other in the
south), the recipes for tortelli require the addition of almonds to
the stuffing and the sauce, providing the dish with a very special
aroma. Almonds are never far from our kitchens and are often used
because they grow on the hilly slopes. Especially at the Ambasciata,
they use peach almonds, or that is, the kernel of sun-dried peaches,
just as country-folk used to do. At Il Cigno, on the other hand,
they add sultanas to the stuffing to enhance the dish's sweet
flavor. Around Acquanegra sul Chiese, they use mints crushed in the
mortar and at Canneto sull'Oglio abundant use is made of macaroons.
Further
to different fillings, even the way of serving the tortelli can vary
considerably from one area to another without being able to
establish any definite rules. Tradition would have tortelli
served simply with melted butter and grated Parmesan, with perhaps a
leaf or two of sage: this is the way to "bring out", exalting and
valorising, the flavor of the filling. In the southern area of the
Mantua province, they are often presented in a sauce prepared with
tomatoes cooked with sautéed onions to highlight the contrast
between the sweet pumpkin and the acidulous taste of the tomatoes
(here, again, the sweet and sour); or flavored with tomato and
salamella (sausage) or again, topped with garlic, parsley and melted
butter. A special mention must be made of the sauce used at the
Ambasciata in Quistello, where a characteristic element of Mantuan
cuisine, vino cotto, is used for the tortelli named sguasarot
(stuffed with chestnuts and sauce, typical of some dishes from
Emilia).
Special attention must be paid to the pasta pastry, the basis of
many of the first courses in northern Italian cuisine. At Il Cigno,
the traditional pastry made from eggs and white flour is enriched by
semolino and milk to make it more delicate; at the Bersagliere,
instead, they use a very strong American flour to which they add a
percentage of durum wheat flour Even the preparation of the
pastry differs from one restaurant to another: in one kitchen, the
pastry is worked with the rolling pin so that it remains porous and
absorbs the sauce more, we are told; others avail of modern
technology to render the pastry of uniform thickness and to ensure
that it cooks evenly.
After preparing the stuffing and the pastry, we go on to the shaping
of the tortelli: originally they were rectangular; sometimes,
however, and especially in the southern part of the province, they
are closed like a cocked hat which, in our dialect, is called a
portador or brentatore (Malagutti, 1991:161).
Although linked particularly with the tradition of Christmas Eve,
tortelli are always on the menu in Mantuan restaurants because
pumpkins are easily preserved. They are picked in autumn and then
kept in the loft or in other dry places. The pumpkin is, however, a
singular vegetable, not always of the highest quality, and for this
the measure of other ingredients can be modified at any time
according to its flavor and consistency.
Taken from "Di terra e di acqua" ed. Franco Angeli.
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