Ingredients for 6 people: For the pasta:
500 g soft wheat flour (Italian type 0)
6 eggs 100 g durum wheat flour
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil *** For the filling:
300 g beef200 g pork100 g chicken breast2 eggs80 g grated Parmigiano½ carrot½ onion1 stalk of celery3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil salt nutmeg *** For the broth:
500 g shin and brisket of beef (or mixed meats suitable for broth, according to taste) ½ chicken1 onion1 stalk of celery1 carrot 1 tbsp salt3 l water
Put a saucepan on to boil with the water, vegetables (washed cleaned and cut into pieces), meat and salt. For a clearer broth, use a skimmer spoon to remove the “froth”, which gradually forms on the surface when it begins to boil; then leave to simmer over a low heat for around 2 hours.
In the meanwhile prepare the filling: after cleaning and washing them, cut the vegetables and the various types of meat into pieces and sauté them together in a heavy-bottomed frying pan with the olive oil. Season with salt and cook, stirring from time to time. When the meat is cooked, take the pan off the heat, leave it to cool and remove the vegetables. Mince the meat or, if you haven’t got a mincer, blend it in a food processor, then put it in a bowl. Pour in the juices that formed in the bottom of the frying pan, stir well, add the eggs, Parmigiano and nutmeg. Stir the mixture until it’s smooth and homogeneous.
Leave it to rest and move on to preparing the “sheet” of pasta: pile the flour up on your work surface and make a “well” in the middle; break the eggs into it, add the oil and a pinch of salt. Start mixing slowly with a fork, and then use your hands until the dough forms a smooth, compact ball. Roll out the pasta dough as thin as you can. After you’ve let it rest for a quarter of an hour, dip the edge of a shot glass or an expresso coffee cup (approx. 5 cm in diameter) in flour and use it to cut out disks of pasta. Using a teaspoon, take a small ball of filling and place it in the centre of each disk. Fold the disk in half and press the edges together with your fingertips to seal the filling in. Then fold the two corners downwards and backwards, and press them together. Now lift the edge all around and you’ve got a “cappelletto”, which literally means small hat in Italian and gives these mini delicacies their name. As you prepare them, place them on your work surface and sprinkle with a little flour so they don’t stick together or to the work surface.
Filter the broth through a strainer into another saucepan, put it on the stove and, when it comes to the boil, delicately drop the cappelletti into it and cook them for 2 or 3 minutes. Serve them piping hot accompanied by a bowl of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. They’re hard work to prepare, but heavenly, absolutely fit for a feast!