Tortellini are a religion in Modena:
If you don’t believe in God, you can always believe in tortellini.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
Tortellini Walking on the Broth

The year was 1998. Osteria Francescana was bending the rules and asking hard questions of the Italian kitchen. And yet, no matter how many delicious tortellini they served, the Modenese would always say, “These tortellini are pretty good, but nothing compares to my mother’s!”

Massimo could not stand this debate.
If you look at the world in a nostalgic way, your mother’s tortellini will always be the best.
If you look at the world in a critical way, the ones you are eating right now can be even better.

What could they do?
Change the tortellini or change the Modenese?
How about both!

Massimo and the team made a radical decision — serve six tortellini.
This was not an overflowing bowl swimming in capon broth.
A thin layer of capon broth thickened with agar gave the illusion that tortellini were walking across the golden surface of the plate.

Could these tortellini be devoured with the same religious fervour?
Could this gesture support the debate that traditions can only survive through questioning?

credit Pål Hansen – @pal_hansen

Lidia Cristoni, sous-chef at Trattoria del Campazzo, taught Massimo how to make tortellini. She was a master at rolling egg pasta dough by hand, a mentor and a muse. Her spirit lives on in every tortellini we serve.

The reactions were overwhelming.
Guests were in shock, outraged, even offended: “Six tortellini!”
Some walked out the door.
Those who stayed, discovered how truly remarkable Modenese tortellini could be: a 500-year old artisanal craft containing identity and flavour.
Tradition in evolution—all in one bite.

People began to ask for this little known pasta—tortellini—by name. You could say, in a certain sense, tortellini were born again.

Since that controversial dish, the tortellini tradition has not only survived; it has thrived! Today Francescana Family kitchens are preparing handmade tortellini in Florence, Los Angeles, Miami, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore.
And with so many requests for tortellini, a pasta lab for young people on the autism spectrum called Tortellante began their own artisanal production in Modena.

Over the years we have learned that tortellini are not only a religion.
They are a container for ideas.

What do you believe?

NEVER STOP QUESTIONING

Tortellante, a therapeutic pasta lab with artisanal production of tortellini.