Langhe and Monferrato, Piedmont
Piedmont's most celebrated stuffed pasta: tiny, pinched pasta parcels (plin = pinch in Piedmontese dialect) filled with a mixture of braised and ground beef, veal, pork, rabbit, and roasted vegetables (carrots, onions, celery), bound with egg and Parmigiano. The pasta sheet is folded over the filling and pinched at regular intervals into rectangular parcels barely 3cm long. Served three ways: in the cooking broth (al brodo), with a roasting jus (al sugo d'arrosto — arguably the finest), or tossed simply with butter and sage.
Intensely meaty filling in gossamer pasta, bathed in roasting juices — the most elegant expression of the northern Italian meat-filled pasta tradition
The filling must be made from pre-cooked meats — raw meat produces a grittier texture and doesn't allow the filling to set correctly. The braised meats are ground twice through a fine plate and mixed with their reduced braising liquid (concentrated to a thick glaze) for maximum flavour. The pasta sheet must be paper-thin (1-1.5mm) — thicker pasta means the ratio of pasta to filling is incorrect. The plin (pinch) must be tight to prevent filling escape during cooking. They float to the top when cooked — remove immediately.
The 'sugo d'arrosto' (roasting jus) dressing is the peak preparation: collect the pan juices from roasted veal or beef, de-fat, and toss with the hot agnolotti. The fat and protein from the jus coats the pasta without any additional fat. For a party, the agnolotti can be made ahead and dried on semolina-dusted trays for 2-3 hours — this firms the pasta and makes them easier to handle without sticking.
Thick pasta sheets overwhelm the delicate filling. Filling with raw meat produces sandy texture. Loose pinching causes filling to escape and floating parcels to be hollow. Over-cooking in the broth toughens the thin pasta — 2-3 minutes maximum after floating.
La Cucina Piemontese — Giovanni Goria