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<\/p>\nTortelli alla lastra and bartolacci are the same thing.<\/p>\n
The term bartolaccio refers to tortelli alla lastra from the village of Tredozio, a town in the Romagna Apennines, part of the area known as Romagna-Toscana. Every year, this town holds a festival dedicated to bartolaccio. Compared to the tortelli alla lastra, common in Romagna and Tuscany, it is usually rectangular and filled with potatoes, pancetta, and grated cheese.<\/p>\n
Although the name recalls that of fresh pasta, tortelli alla lastra, which can be rectangular, square, or crescent-shaped, are similar to Romagna crescioni. Tortelli alla lastra are the peasant and mountain version of crescioni.<\/p>\n
The dough, made from water and flour and rolled out thinly, harks back to ancient times. When the Apennines were populated by shepherds who, during transhumance, brought with them simple food such as these tortelli, which they cooked on a slab or a tile that was once a flat stone heated over a fire and then placed over the embers in the fireplace. The cooking technique, handed down over time, maintains a strong link to mountain peasant traditions, even though we cook it on the stove top today.<\/p>\n
The same can be said of the filling, which, especially in the past, was made of pumpkin or potatoes. And still today, it is made with pumpkins, potatoes, grated cheese, and whatever you have on hand. It is a dish of cucina povera with a modern twist. The word tortelli indeed derives from the presence of a dough that envelops a filling, like for fresh pasta.<\/p>\n
The recipe is recognized as a Traditional Agri-Food Product (PAT) in both Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.<\/p>\n
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I can still see the skilled, age-old gestures of the women of Tredozio as they prepare the fillings and dough, roll out the pastry, fill and shape the bartolacci using the edge of a plate. I will never forget that gesture.<\/span><\/p>\n It all started with a <\/span>vacation in Romagna Toscana area<\/span><\/strong><\/a> that I wanted to show my husband. I love this area of Romagna, which has been the destination of many trips and Sunday lunches with my family. It was the summer after the great turmoil of COVID, when we didn’t know what to do. So we decided to go on vacation without straying too far.<\/span><\/p>\n It was one of the best vacations of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n We slept in the hills above Tredozio, surrounded by silence, between cultivated fields and woods. I remember only blue skies, strozzapreti pasta, piadina flatbread, and many flavors that I had forgotten, like the garlic sauce typical of Tredozio and bartolacci.<\/span><\/p>\n Then I tasted the former in the historic hotel restaurant in the village and fell in love again with that simple sauce, garlic and tomato, where the former cooks for so long that it becomes very sweet. I also asked the greengrocer whether and when the Bartolacci Club would be open, which is just a room on the street with a handwritten sign. It was open the next day. For me.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s always like that in villages. There’s always someone ready to open a door and lend a hand.<\/span><\/p>\n In this spirit, I share the recipe and the gestures, remembering the fragrant tranquility I breathed in that dimly lit room on a hot summer day.<\/span><\/p>\n Buona cucina, Monica<\/p>\n The dough for tortelli alla lastra is more similar to that <\/span>of erbazzone<\/a>, <\/span><\/strong>a typical peasant and mountain dish from the Reggio Emilia area<\/span>, <\/span><\/strong>than to that of <\/span>crescioni romagnoli<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Both recipes are on the blog.<\/span><\/p>\nCooking notes<\/h5>\n
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