For the Tortellini Egg Pasta Dough

• Blend together 1 – 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 JUMBO eggs
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. whole milk (this helps the pasta seal together when twisting the tortellini)
• 1 cup of SEMOLINA flour
• Blend these six ingredients together very, very well.
• Then add 3/4 cup regular flour (not semolina)
• You can mix this the old-fashioned way by making a “bowl” of flour on a wooden block, placing the wet ingredients in the center of the ‘flour bowl’ and gently add the flour in with a fork until completely mixed, OR you can mix the dough in a food processor until it has the consistency of corn meal.
• This finished dough should be well blended, but NOT sticky.
• If it is sticky, cut the dough into 3 sections and add 1 Tbsp. flour to each. If, on the other hand, it is too dry and crumbly, add 1 – 2 tsp. water.
• Knead the pasta dough for 2 – 3 minutes.
• Place into plastic bag and let rest for 30 minutes.
• For every egg that you use, it will make about 100 tortellini, therefore this recipe makes 100 tortellini (at the correct size that is).

For the Tortellini Filling

• 1 lb. ground cooked veal, drain the fat and cool slightly
• 1/4 lb. prosciutto
• 1/4 lb. mortadella
• While the veal is cooking, grind the prosciutto and mortadella in a food processor, only until it is in little pieces — don’t process to much or it will turn into a mushy mess.
• Then add the cooked veal; let it cool a little or the egg that you are about to add will cook and you don’t want the eggs to cook.
• Add to the whole mixture 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. (or more to taste) nutmeg, dash of pepper, and 1 jumbo beaten egg

Continue to add

• 1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmigiana Reggiano cheese
• 1/3 – 2/3 cups plain bread crumbs
• If needed add 1 – 2 Tbsp. butter
• YOU HAVE TO TASTE THROUGHOUT THE BLENDING to determine the ‘crumbly texture and biting taste’.
• Now, it’s time to get the chicken broth going on the stove before you get started rolling the pasta dough out.

For the Chicken Broth (Brodo)

• Fill a large, TALL pot with clean water (I like to use water from my frig that purifies it). FIll the pot with about 3/4’s water, leaving enough room from the top of the pot to put the rest of the ingredients in without overflowing the water.
• Put the following into the pot of water:
• 1 6–pound chicken (hen)
• 1 package soup bones (if you can get them)
• 1 4–pound round bone beef roast
• 3 carrots, cut in thirds
• 1 onion, cut in 1/4’s
• 3 celery stalks, cut in thirds
• 1/4 bunch of Italian parsley
• salt
• Cook for 2 – 3 hours.
• Take all ingredients out of the broth with a hand strainer.
• With thin tea towels covering a colander/strainer, pour the broth through the tea towels and colander/strainer into another pot……this is a lot of work and usually needs two people to do this.
• Be careful, the broth is very hot while you do this.
• Continue to strain the broth into clean tea towels about two more times until the broth is completely clear and free of any ingredient remains.
• Taste, add more salt to taste.
• If you make this the night before, refrigerate it, and then the next day, skim off any fat/grease from the top (it will solidify in the frig and be very easy to remove).