Tortellini vs Tortelloni: What’s The Difference?

Pasta lovers will enjoy a traditional stuffed pasta during National Tortellini Day on February 13!

Tortellini is a signature dish from the Italian region of Bologna, where they claim to have created this stuffed pasta packed with flavor. Ravioli, tortellini and tortellacci are all part of the same family of stuffed pasta. The most common fillings for tortellini are ham, white meat and Parmesan cheese.

• 1500s – According to one legend, the shape of tortellini pasta is inspired by the navel of the goddess of love, Venus.
• 1570 – The oldest tortellini recipe dates back to 1570.
• 17th Century – Vincenzo Tanara’s writings may be the reason for the pasta’s renaming to ‘tortellini.’
• 17th Century – Three legends about the creation of Tortellini
  • The dish was created in Castelfranco Emilia when Lucrezia Borgia stopped by an inn, and the host was so taken by her beauty that he peeked into her room, saw her belly button, and made pasta shaped like her belly button.
  • Pretty similar to the first legend, except this time it was an innkeeper in Bologna who saw Venus’s belly button when Venus and Jupiter stopped by.
  • Now a 180-degree turn and instead of belly buttons, the third story says that tortellini was made to look like turtles, a common motif in 17th-century buildings.
• 19th Century – Up until the 19th century tortellini were confined to the tables of the more affluent members of society, or were served up only on holidays.
• 1965 – Bologna is home to the Dotta Confraternita Del Tortellino, “Learned Order of the Tortellino” (singular of tortellini), an organization founded in 1965 and dedicated to the preservation of this dish in its most traditional form—meat filling served in meat broth.
  • members wear red and gold hats that are shaped like tortellini.
  • A yearly tortellini festival, Sagra del Tortellino, with costumed characters re-enacting the legendary creation of tortellini, takes place every September in the town of Castelfranco Emilia
• 1974 – The official recipe for the tortellini is registered at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna.
• Tortellini is a signature dish from the Italian region of Bologna, which claims to have created this stuffed pasta packed with flavor.  Ravioli, tortellini, and tortellacci are all part of the same family of stuffed pasta.
• Tortellini are small ring-shaped pasta stuffed with meat or cheese.
• Like tortellini, tortelloni is a stuffed pasta shaped into a circle and stuffed with warm cheese. Tortelloni are larger.
• They are called “umbellico” pasta due to their belly button shape.
• The “tortellini” is quite rightly the symbol of Bologna’s cuisine because it combines the inimitable fragrance of rolled pasta with the flavor of a rich filling: all the specialties of Bologna’s cuisine are captured in a single mouthful.
• About 39% of Americans believe tortellini is fancier than other pasta.
• An additional 29% say eating tortellini makes them feel fancy, even if all they’re doing is adding sauce.
• Some 12% of Americans have even served this pasta to impress someone, which is up from 7% last year (2020).
• For two years in a row, Americans have picked cheese as their favorite tortellini filling (24% for 2020, up 4% from last year).
• Nationwide, 78% of Americans are all about cheese when it comes to tortellini fillings.
• A yearly tortellini festival, Sagra del Tortellino, with costumed characters re-enacting the legendary creation of tortellini, takes place every September

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Joy of Kosher

Fun Food Facts

Funky Frugal Mommy

National Today