November 2019. It is a quiet day in the newsroom, we are leafing through the old magazines with great attention and curiosity, like every week during this period. The occasion is the birthday for i 90 years of "La Cucina Italiana", which we are celebrating with recipes and photographs that trace our long history.

We have found many special things during the research, but we never thought we would come across this recipe. We are at December 1977, a number full of recipes to bring to the feast-laden tables for Christmas. And here it is, described as an important dish for the Christmas lunch: the cannelloni stuffed with tortellini. Yup, tortellini cannelloni. A fresh pasta stuffed with fresh stuffed pasta could only be proposed at that time, while we were about to enter the opulence of the 80s. "A substantial and very important Emilian specialty", as explained in the text, absolutely not dietetic. Obviously, the ingredient par excellence of the 70s could not be missing: the cream.

Well, we think it's really the case to try to cook this epic dish even today, be it for Christmas lunches or for a different Sunday. Turn on the spirit vintage that is in you and you begin to anticipate the astonished gaze of your guests once you discover the unexpected filling.

Cannelloni stuffed with tortellini: the recipe

Ingredients

500 g Tortellini
500 g milk
250 g White flour
220 g Thinly sliced ​​ham (about 7)
120 g Butter
100 g Fresh cream
100 g diced mozzarella
2 eggs
Grated Parmesan q.b.
Nutmeg q.b.
Salt to taste.
Pepper as needed.

Method

Put a large, high saucepan with about 6 liters of salted water on the heat. With the two eggs and about 200 g of flour, prepare the dough for the cannelloni, working the mixture well with the special machine and proceeding with a little paste at a time. In the meantime, keep the pasta under a bowl to prevent it from drying out.

Make strips about 12 cm wide, placing them over a cloth by hand. When they are all ready, get some equal rectangles, about 14 cm long, getting about 20 rectangles.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and place it near the saucepan. When the salted water has boiled, dip the rectangles of dough, cooking 5 at a time for about 2-3 minutes; extract them with a slotted spoon and dip them in cold water. After a few minutes, remove them from the water and place them on the cloth.

When all the pasta rectangles are ready, cook the tortellini in the same water, draining them slightly al dente.
In a large pan melt 50 g of butter and add the tortellini, mix gently and after 3-4 minutes sprinkle with the cream, keeping them on the fire until they have absorbed it all.

Divide each slice of ham into three parts and place one on each rectangle of dough, placing about 12 tortellini on the ends. Sprinkle with a few cubes of mozzarella and then close the dough, forming large cannelloni.

With 50 g of butter, the same amount of flour and milk, prepare a béchamel, seasoning and flavoring it with a sprinkling of nutmeg. Cover the base of a baking pan with a third of the béchamel, place the cannelloni on top (very close together) and sprinkle them with the remaining béchamel, grated Parmesan and a few flakes of butter. Bake at 200 g for about 10 minutes.