T’s May 19 Travel issue is dedicated to pasta in Italy, diving deep into the culinary traditions, regional variations and complicated history of the country’s national symbol. Here, to complement Dawn Davis’s essay on Piedmont’s agnolotti del plin, is a list of seven other stuffed pastas — and where to find them.
1. ANOLINI
Round or crescent shaped, filled with slow-cooked meat, Parmesan and bread crumbs
Provenance: Emilia-Romagna
While anolini are closely associated with Parma — where they’re mentioned in local court documents from the middle of the 17th century — they’re also typical in Piacenza, 40 miles northwest. Although the name is widely believed to derive from anello, which means “ring,” anolini can be half-moons, too. Whatever the shape, they’re defined by their filling of stracotto: beef braised in wine until surrounded by a gravy-like sauce called a fondo. At Osteria del Trentino, near the old armory in Piacenza, several hundred anolini are prepared every other day in the restaurant’s small kitchen. The minced stracotto is mixed with bread crumbs, Parmesan and some of the fondo, then enclosed in fresh egg pasta. Each anolino is the size of a bottle cap, with a similarly serrated edge, and is cooked in what’s called brodo di terza (“broth of thirds”), the name referencing the three types of meat — beef, veal and chicken — that are simmered in water to produce a golden, flavorful broth.
2. CAPPELLACCI
Hat shaped, filled with pumpkin and Parmesan
Provenance: Emilia-Romagna
“Potbellies,” “donkey ears,” “pants,” “shoes,” “cockscombs,” “slaps” — English translations of filled pasta names are often entertaining but not entirely accurate. Translating gets even clumsier when suffixes are involved: “tortellini” (“little filled things”); “tortelloni” (“big filled things”); “cappelletti” (“little hats”). And then there is “cappellacci,” which is difficult to translate because “accio” is a pejorative suffix. “Ragazzo,” or “boy,” for example, becomes “ragazzaccio” (“bad boy”), while “cappello” (“hat”) is degraded to “cappellaccio” (“scruffy hat”), in line with the folk theory that the round, folded form of a cappellaccio is like a farmer’s straw hat.
