Tordelli Lucchesi con Ragù di Carne e Erbe

Tuscany — Lucca

Lucca's pasta — a large, oval filled pasta unique to the Lucca area, with a filling that contains both meat (pork, veal, or rabbit) and a green herb-cheese component (ricotta, spinach, Parmigiano, lemon zest). Unlike other Tuscan filled pasta, tordelli includes both meat and green in a single filling — a preparation that reflects Lucca's medieval position as a wealthy trading city that could afford more complex preparations. Dressed with a meat ragù — the filling and the sauce both contain meat, creating an echo effect.

• Large filled pasta with a ricotta-spinach filling in a meat sauce — Lucca adds the braised meat to the filling itself, creating the double-meat echo that Bologna achieves by serving ricotta filling with meat sauce → Tortelloni di ricotta e spinaci Bolognese
• Filled pasta with vegetable-cheese filling served with a meat-based sauce — the contrast of filling and sauce representing two different cooking traditions in one dish → Ravioli di magro con sugo di carne Roman
• Filled pasta with a meat-and-cheese filling — both the Mantovano and Lucchese traditions use a composite filling containing meat and dairy as the most luxurious expression of their regional pasta canon → Agnolini with meat filling Mantovan

Meat-and-herb filling with lemon thread, egg pasta, pork-veal ragù — complex, layered, the medieval luxury of Lucca's trading city history