You usually will see a stuffed pasta at an Italian restaurant, most often under the familiar name ravioli. These are the second most commonly seen menu items. Though stuffed pasta in America once meant just ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach served with a tomato or meat sauce, the range of names and fillings has broadened considerably. Today, you will see not only ravioli, but agnolotti, tortelli, tortellini, cappelletti and others, filled and served in a number of ways. If the names aren’t used as they are in Italy, no matter.
A little history. (I’m working on a history of Italian restaurants, so I often think about it). Ravioli in its now familiar form was the other type of pasta, in addition to spaghetti, that made it on to most Italian menus in America before the Second World War. It was also the only freshly made pasta from southern Italy that was typically found on Italian menus in America for many years. This was the type of ravioli made by the immigrant forebearers in Campania, Calabria, and Sicily, if only for feast days. The ravioli was almost always the only pasta made on site then, if any were. Many restaurants relied on a good fresh pasta shop in their Italian neighborhood for these. In San Francisco, the handful of Ligurian-rooted stalwarts regularly served a few freshly made pastas other than ravioli, and their filled pastas might have sported different shapes and different names like agnolotti or tortellini.
Something what can seem odd today, ravioli became to be served with spaghetti throughout the county. The dish was half spaghetti, half ravioli. Diners did not have to choose at many, then most, Italian restaurants between the two pasta delights. This was common for decades, from at least the 1930s, if less so at the more highly regarded restaurants. By the 1970s, baked pastas became more common. Cannelloni and more frequently lasagna that was on a roll following the Second World War. These pastas might have also been made in the restaurants, if were the ravioli. With the emergence of ambitious and also regional Italian restaurants by the 1990s, more types of pasta shape were served. And even much more now.
Some information about the more popular names you might encounter:
Agnolotti – Small stuffed pasta from Piedmont similar to ravioli, which are often filled with braised, minced meats. There is also agnolotti del plin, a specialty of the Langhe area, where Barolo and Barbaresco is produced, in which the small meat-filled agnolotti are finished with a pinch. Plin is “pinch” in the local dialect. Some restaurants in America give this name to what would otherwise be called ravioli to sound fancier.
Cappellacci – Stuffed pasta from Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna where these are filled with winter squash, nutmeg, and sometimes mostarda, then boiled and served with butter and sage or a meat ragù. The name means “big hats.” In restaurants in America, in addition to those fillings, cappellacci might feature zucchini, ricotta and spinach, or seafood, typically a filling more delicate than what would be in ravioli.
Cappelletti – With a name in Italian meaning “little hats,” referencing what hats used to looked like in the city of Reggio Emilia several centuries ago, these are another form of attractive, stuffed pasta. Similar to the tortellini made nearby in Bologna and Modena and also served in broth there, these are a little larger and often filled with cheese and maybe a seasonal green. Here, cappelletti are usually filled with either meat or cheese and found both in broth and also with sauces on a plate.
Cresta di Gallo – Mostly seen as an elaborate-looking extruded dried pasta with ruffles and curves that takes its name from a resemblance to the cockscomb, or crest, of a rooster. Also found on restaurants as a freshly made pasta filled like ravioli and made into half-moon shapes with pinched edges that look also like a cockscomb, though in a different way.
Culurgiones – A type of ravioli from Sardinia made with hard and soft wheat flour, olive oil or lard and water and often shaped so that the front seam of the raviolo resembles a wheat sheaf. The fillings change throughout Sardinia and include potatoes and mint, and greens and cheeses, and these are usually sauced with a simple one of tomatoes with basil, or a meat sauce.
Pansôti – A type of ravioli from Liguria in northwestern Italy where it is made without egg and filled with ricotta and minced wild greens then shaped into squares, triangles, or half-moons. At restaurants in America, it is often just another, if fancier, name for ravioli.
Tortelli – Stuffed pasta similar to ravioli that is usually folded into half-moons, triangles, or rectangles that are popular in Italian regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy.
Tortelloni – Bigger-sized tortellini, which are served in a plate with a sauce rather than in broth.
An attractively rendered version of ravioli this summer
A little history. (I’m working on a history of Italian restaurants, so I often think about it). Ravioli in its now familiar form was the other type of pasta, in addition to spaghetti, that made it on to most Italian menus in America before the Second World War. It was also the only freshly made pasta from southern Italy that was typically found on Italian menus in America for many years. This was the type of ravioli made by the immigrant forebearers in Campania, Calabria, and Sicily, if only for feast days. The ravioli was almost always the only pasta made on site then, if any were. Many restaurants relied on a good fresh pasta shop in their Italian neighborhood for these. In San Francisco, the handful of Ligurian-rooted stalwarts regularly served a few freshly made pastas other than ravioli, and their filled pastas might have sported different shapes and different names like agnolotti or tortellini.
Something what can seem odd today, ravioli became to be served with spaghetti throughout the county. The dish was half spaghetti, half ravioli. Diners did not have to choose at many, then most, Italian restaurants between the two pasta delights. This was common for decades, from at least the 1930s, if less so at the more highly regarded restaurants. By the 1970s, baked pastas became more common. Cannelloni and more frequently lasagna that was on a roll following the Second World War. These pastas might have also been made in the restaurants, if were the ravioli. With the emergence of ambitious and also regional Italian restaurants by the 1990s, more types of pasta shape were served. And even much more now.
Some information about the more popular names you might encounter:
Agnolotti – Small stuffed pasta from Piedmont similar to ravioli, which are often filled with braised, minced meats. There is also agnolotti del plin, a specialty of the Langhe area, where Barolo and Barbaresco is produced, in which the small meat-filled agnolotti are finished with a pinch. Plin is “pinch” in the local dialect. Some restaurants in America give this name to what would otherwise be called ravioli to sound fancier.
Cappellacci – Stuffed pasta from Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna where these are filled with winter squash, nutmeg, and sometimes mostarda, then boiled and served with butter and sage or a meat ragù. The name means “big hats.” In restaurants in America, in addition to those fillings, cappellacci might feature zucchini, ricotta and spinach, or seafood, typically a filling more delicate than what would be in ravioli.
Cappelletti – With a name in Italian meaning “little hats,” referencing what hats used to looked like in the city of Reggio Emilia several centuries ago, these are another form of attractive, stuffed pasta. Similar to the tortellini made nearby in Bologna and Modena and also served in broth there, these are a little larger and often filled with cheese and maybe a seasonal green. Here, cappelletti are usually filled with either meat or cheese and found both in broth and also with sauces on a plate.
Cresta di Gallo – Mostly seen as an elaborate-looking extruded dried pasta with ruffles and curves that takes its name from a resemblance to the cockscomb, or crest, of a rooster. Also found on restaurants as a freshly made pasta filled like ravioli and made into half-moon shapes with pinched edges that look also like a cockscomb, though in a different way.
Culurgiones – A type of ravioli from Sardinia made with hard and soft wheat flour, olive oil or lard and water and often shaped so that the front seam of the raviolo resembles a wheat sheaf. The fillings change throughout Sardinia and include potatoes and mint, and greens and cheeses, and these are usually sauced with a simple one of tomatoes with basil, or a meat sauce.
Pansôti – A type of ravioli from Liguria in northwestern Italy where it is made without egg and filled with ricotta and minced wild greens then shaped into squares, triangles, or half-moons. At restaurants in America, it is often just another, if fancier, name for ravioli.
Tortelli – Stuffed pasta similar to ravioli that is usually folded into half-moons, triangles, or rectangles that are popular in Italian regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy.
Tortelloni – Bigger-sized tortellini, which are served in a plate with a sauce rather than in broth.
An attractively rendered version of ravioli this summer
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