Tuscany: Tortelli Maremmani (Huge Ravioli) and Homemade Egg Pasta; by popular demand: my Grandma Recipe! (2024)

Tortelli Maremmani, 2 words that make me immediately remember my granny Amossina.

I watched her making pasta every Sunday, completely fascinated by her skills.

Tortelli Maremmani was my father’s favorite dish and I can understand him very well because they’re one of the most delicious Tuscan dishes that you can taste.

Maremma is a wildland in the south of Tuscany, it’s where I was born and where I have my “roots”.

So, Tortelli Maremmani is the Italian for Tortelli (huge Ravioli) from Maremma.

All simple dishes in the Maremma cuisine; the richness of flavor does not come from the number of different ingredients but from:

1. the use of aromatic herbs and mushrooms
2. slow and prolonged cooking
3. the ability to cook courtyard animals, thus exploiting all that the area can offer.

Anyway, Maremma is also, traditionally, livestock breeding land. That’s why is very popular in Maremma the ricotta cheese; we can find it fresh, smoked or worked in various ways, also used for the preparation of the famous Tortelli Maremmani.

Among all the dishes of Maremma’s poor kitchen, the place of honor is certainly for tortelli maremmani; every Maremmans often dreams of having a good meal of tortelli, every housewife is happy to make everyone happy bringing to the table a nice tray of fragrant and steamy tortelli, made with their own hands …

All the restaurants, even the most sophisticated, make a race to present this simple and delicious peasant dish.

So it’s obvious that many customers and students on holiday here in Tuscany, ask for a Private Cooking Class with “Tortelli Maremmani” as the first course and a gorgeous Ragu (Meat Sauce) to season this tasteful and old dish.

TORTELLI MAREMMANI and HOMEMADE PASTA

Recipe by Erika Elia (Cuoche in Vacanza)

• 1,1 lb all-purpose flour
• 5 eggs
• to taste whole milk

For the Filling

• 1 lb sieved fresh ricotta cheese
• 1 lb boiled spinach
• 5 tbsp grated parmesan
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• to taste salt
• to taste black pepper

Home Made Egg Pasta Recipe (for egg pasta, the ratio is always the same: 1 egg each 100 gr flour)

1. My Granny and I shake the flour onto a wooden board, make a hole in the center and crack the 5 eggs into the hole.
2. If you like you can make the “volcano” inside a large mixing bowl and add the eggs.
3. Mix the eggs together with your fingertips gradually adding the flour (if necessary, add a small amount of milk).
4. Knead the dough mix thoroughly until a smooth and elastic dough is formed.
5. Shape in a ball and put it to rest covered with a damp cloth for at least 30 minutes so that it will be easier to work it.
6. roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is thin and uniform. Cut into strips, ideally equal size
7. take a strip and place a teaspoon of filling in small piles 3cm distance and
8. cover with a second strip pressing the dough with your fingers around the piles of filling (to get off the air)
9. cut the pasta using the pastry wheel in many 10cm side squares
10. close every side helping you with a long fork passed in the flour
11. put in salted (a handful of coarse salt) boiling water for about 6 minutes since it boils again

How making the TORTELLI filling

1. Beat the egg in a bowl
2. add sieved ricotta cheese, chopped spinach, parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper
3. mix well
4. put in the fridge to rest

Here is another typical dish (first course-soup) from Maremma that you definitely have to taste:

ACQUACOTTA MAREMMANA

Maybe you can be interested in COLORED (natural ingredients) Homemade Fresh Pasta, CLICK HERE.