Seafood Tortellini ‘in brodo’

This recipe is from my 2024 cookbook, BETTERE THAN NONNA.

If you are an Italian food lover you must have had it or heard about Tortellini in brodo. Little pasta parcels, as little as a fingernail, with a rich meaty filing hailing from the region of Emilia Romagna in north of Italy, and more precisely Bologna, its main city.

I love tortellini and to the local people they are sacred, like little jewels (rightly so!). It take time and patience (and practice) to make many portions of them by hands and they’re traditional way to be serve is simple, with a rich broth (brodo) with loads of flavour. You can also find them with Bolognese ragu or Parmigiano Reggiano cream sauce but brodo is their natural habitat.

I love tortellini in brodo so much that rather than twist the original recipe I wanted to create an alternative one, that stemmed out from the original if it makes sense, and for this reason, the seafood tortellini came to mind.

The same original pasta concept applied to seafood instead of using meat.

I usually use white fish for the filling like seabream and prawns head for the consommé, but these can both be easily swapped for similar options if you don’t have them available.

Like the original, this recipe requires some care so take your time with it. I wouldn’t blame you also if you buy pre-filleted fish for this, it is an easy choice, simply use more prawns’ head for the brood.

For 4 pp // Prep. Time – 2 h (plus cooling)

For the consommé

• 1 sea bream bones

• 1 Celery stalk

• 2 Onions, peeled

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 sprig of basil

• 1 sprig of parsley

• 1 sprig of fennel

• 2 egg whites

• about 3 lt of water

• About 250 gr of prawns’ heads

• Salt, pepper to taste

 For the filling

• 300/350 gr sea bream, meat only

• 50 ml of double cream

• ½ orange zest

• Fennel tops or dill

• Salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta

• 200 gr of 00 flour

• 100 gr of eggs

For the black pasta

• 110 gr of 00 flour

• 50 gr of eggs

• 5 gr of pasteurized squid ink

Method

To prepare the pasta beat the eggs and yolks and knead together with the flour either by hand or with a mixer. ‘Work it’ until smooth and elastic, don’t give up. If after a while it feels to wet add a touch of flour and keep going, on the other hand, if too dry you can even add a little splash of water or remaing egg whites. Set aside to rest for 30 minutes covered with film.

When ready, wrap your dough in film and leave to rest for about 30 minutes, this will allow the dough to ‘relax’ and not being too elastic when shaping your pasta.

Proceed in the same way for the black pasta, incorporating the squid ink with the eggs.

For the filling, remove the seabream fillets from the bones and remove the skin with a sharp knife. Pin-bone the meat and chop it into rough cubes. Know blitz it in a processor along with the cream until you have a paste. Now dress the filling with salt and pepper, orange zest and finely chopped fennel. Place in a pastry bag in the fridge.

Wash the fish bone and use it for a stock with any herbs and veg trimmings you have available (the ones listed are for the second step). Cover with water, season lightly, let it simmer for about 30 minutes then drain and let it cool completely. When cold, to clarify the broth and turn it into a consommé blitz the prawns head with the egg whites, herbs and vegs and season with salt and pepper. Now whisk it in the cold stock to clarify it and put it on a low heat to simmer gently. Don’t mix it at this stage.

When the egg white mixture starts to cook, it will slowly solidify and while doing so, collect all the impurities in the broth, making it crystal clear. During the process, check very gently with the help of a flat spoon or spatula that the mixture hasn’t caught to the bottom of the pan. When the mixture is cooked and floats to the surface, break it in the middle gently to let the consommé ‘breathe’ while simmering. Simmer it for about 20 minutes and let it reduce. Slowly and carefully pass it through a fine sieve lined with a clean kitchen cloth. Check the seasoning.

After resting, Proceed to roll the doughs into thin pasta sheets.

Slice the pasta into thick sheets and flatten them with a rolling pin then with the help of a pasta machine, roll the pasta gradually from the largest setting to the narrower settings to make thin pasta sheets to about 1 mm thickness.

Now, lightly flour a side of the table and place the yellow pasta sheet on it, cover it with film so it doesn’t dry and repeat the rolling operation with the black pasta and finally cut it into thin stripes like tagliolini/spaghetti. Place the black tagliolini in a orderly manner on top of the yellow sheet until you have covered it with the stripy pattern. Press with the rolling pin and pass the stripy sheet on the machine at the same setting one last time to make sure it sticks well.

Now cut the pasta sheet into 3cm squares using a sharp knife and fill each square with a little dollop of sea bream filling.

Very gently fold each circle with the filling on itself and press the edges together to create a triangle shape raviolo. If the edges do not stick, brush with very little water.

Now bring the 2 edges on the sides together and press creating beautiful tortellini.

Cook the tortellini in salted boiling water for about 1 minute and plate in a bowl. You don’t want to cook them in the consommé as it could get cloudy. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil if you like and serve with the hot consommé.