Recipe: Renaissance Chicken "Tortellini"

Recipe Source: Scappi, Bartolomeo.  The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi.  Terrence Scully, transl.  University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2008 p. 230

I was asked recently to teach a brief, one-hour class on Italian Renaissance cooking at an upcoming event in September.  The class may or may not happen (long story), and I'm okay with that really.  It's an exciting topic, I've got lots of research materials available on the topic and it gives me an excuse to try more of the recipes from said research materials.  On the other hand, I'm an atrocious public speaker.  I've actually been known to get up in front of a crowd and forget how to speak English, my first language.  (The combination of languages that comes out can be very entertaining, I'll admit.) 

Anyway, so while the class may or may not happen, I figured that I should be prepared for it.  One of the things I'd like to be able to do at this class is offer samples of a few of the foods from some of these sources.  This was the first recipe I made toward this goal.  I served it at one of our Sunday dinners - I've got a whole host of willing and eager guinea pigs, so why not? 

Maybe I should have chosen a different recipe.  The recipe says specifically to make the dough with rosewater.  I wound up adapting a dough recipe from Jack Denton Scott's The Complete Book of Pasta.  It did not work as well as I'd have liked.  The dough was very tough to work with, to the point where I could not actually fashion tortellini with it.  I wound up having to make ravioli with it instead, and even that was more of a challenge than I'd expected.  I also had to use a lot more moisture than the original dough recipe called for, and all of it was rosewater.  This was a bit of a waste, as I'm not sure how much of the rosewater flavor came through in the final dish. 

I did not cook the meat before putting it into the ravioli as was called for in the original, because I didn't quite see the point and because I was distinctly lacking in the boneless beef marrow, chicken fat and boiled veal udder called for in the original.  I used chicken instead of capon, because my understanding is that they're pretty darn similar.  I omitted the saffron because my saffron stock has disappeared (long story again, but a different long story from above).  For the handful of herbs I used tarragon, because the mint and marjoram suggested were a) an allergy trigger for The Spouse and b) unavailable at the time.  The cheese I used to sprinkle on the final product was pecorino; it's kind of my default cheese.  I used store-bought chicken broth to boil the ravioli, because the original specifically said to boil it in chicken broth.  I used turbinado sugar for the sprinkling before serving, because I wanted to give it an interesting visual effect and because I like the flavor better.

The results were much better than I expected.  I personally thought the dish was a little too sweet for my tastes, but the entire dish was devoured before I brought out the next dish, and that's always a good sign. 

Renaissance Chicken "Tortellini" (serves 8 as a side dish; approx. $4.34/serving, which you can probably bring down by getting cheaper chicken and not using rosewater.)

2 lb ground chicken breast

12 ounces cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons pepper

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

4 ounces currants

1 bunch tarragon, chopped

4 egg yolks

2 eggs

7 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 ounces rosewater, or more

2 ounces (approx.) grated pecorino cheese

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

12 cups chicken broth

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Sharp knife
• Rolling pin
• Large saucepan or pasta pot
• Ladle
• Slotted spoon
• Smallish glass or round cookie cutter
• Stand mixer with the dough hook attachment

1. Combine the dough, 4 beaten eggs, 2 tablespoons olive oil and rosewater in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Combine until you have a smooth, elastic dough, adding more rosewater if necessary.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand at least half an hour.
2. In the large bowl, combine the first eleven ingredients and mix well with clean hands. 
3. Roll out the dough, working in batches, to as thin a consistency as you can get it. 
4. Use the cookie cutter or glass to cut out round pieces of dough.  I had to use a knife to finish cutting these out, as my dough was very tough.  It is okay to re-use the scraps ONE TIME ONLY, otherwise your dough will be very tough and possibly inedible.
5. Spoon a small amount of the filling into the middle of each round.  Fold the round shut and crimp to seal.  You may have filling left over; freeze it for another use.
6. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in the pasta pot. 
7. Add the ravioli and cook thoroughly.  You'll know they're done when they float to the top of the pot.
8. Using the slotted spoon, evacuate the cooked ravioli to your serving vessel. 
9. Use the ladle to pour a bit of broth into the dish.  This will help prevent the ravioli from sticking together. 
10. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, cinnamon and turbinado sugar.  Serve warm. 

Comments

[Natasha - 5 Star Foodie]

This sounds delicious, perfect for my daughter - she loves all her meals sweet :)

[Fearless Kitchen]

Natasha - I think I'm the only person in the whole wide world with such a limited sweet tooth! The whole "sweet" thing was especially popular during the Italian Renaissance, I guess. She'd probably have fun helping to form the ravioli (or tortellini if you have more luck than I did!) too.

[car donation]

This recipe looks great :)

[Fearless Kitchen]

Car - Thanks! Forming the tortellini was kind of a challenge but people really seemed to like these.