Agnolotti are a popular meat or herb filled dumpling from Piedmont, appreciated both in Italy and abroad. This delightful dish has been added to the list of traditional Italian agroalimentary products by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest and protected by the Piedmont Region.
This delicious dish finds its origins in the Piedmont countryside, where housewives stuffed these special dumplings by hand, using leftover meats for the filling.
According to a legend, the origin of the name may come from a cook called Angiolino, or ” Angelòt “, an individual from Monferrat who is said to be the inventor of the recipe so highly appreciated today.
Another theory says the name comes from the Piedmont word anolòt, that is, the utensil once used to give the dumpling its typical circular shape.
“Plin” agnolotti are very typical in the Langhe and Monferrat areas and are characteristically shaped like a boat and are stuffed only with meat.
INGREDIENTS
for 8 people
- 600 g of flanked steak
- 1 Italian pork sausage weighing at least 200 g
- ¼ of a roast chicken (just the pulp)
- 1 slice of Bologna mortadella
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 400 g of cabbage
- 100 g of grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 celery stock
- 1 bay leaf
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
- Butter
- Oil
- Pepper, salt
- 1 bottle of Barbera
- Fresh egg pasta sheets
Preparation:
In a casserole, heat the olive oil and butter, then add the finely chopped onion, celery, and carrot until vegetables are lightly browned. Add the flank steak, previously rubbed with garlic, and brown on each side. Add red wine, cover and braise for 2 hours. Let cool down. Pull the meat from the liquid and set aside, reserving the liquid in a sauce pan.
Place the cooked flank steak, the pork sausage, roast chicken, mortadella, and the cabbage (previously boiled and sautéed in butter) in a food processor. Add the eggs, the parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix.
Roll out fresh pasta dough in long, rectangular sheets. Dab a teaspoon of meat filling at 3 cm intervals lengthwise down one side of the dough. Turn the side of the pasta sheet without filling on top of the other half. Cut in between each dab of meat filling using the cutter wheel. Cook the agnolotti in a pot of boiling salted water. Drain and place the cooked agnolotti in a casserole and serve topped with the meat sauce and braising liquid and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
You can enrichen the recipe by adding white or black truffle, but this will add to the cost of the dish*.
*note from author Roberto De Silva
