Tortellini
tor-tel-LEE-nee
Small square folded over a filling and wrapped around the finger into a ring.
25 mm square
Name. Little tortelli. Legend says the shape copies the navel of Venus, glimpsed through a keyhole by an innkeeper in Castelfranco Emilia.
What it is
Tortellini are the small navel-shaped parcels of Bologna and Modena: a square of egg sheet folded over a filling of pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella, parmesan, egg, and nutmeg, then wrapped around the fingertip and sealed. The recipe was deposited with the Bologna chamber of commerce in 1974.
They are eaten in capon broth at Christmas. Tortellini in cream is a restaurant invention that Bologna tolerates.
How to cook tortellini
2 to 4 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 4.
10:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the tortellini. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Keep the water at a gentle boil, not a rolling one, so the parcels do not split. They are done about a minute after they float.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
How it holds sauce
Made for broth. The small parcel cooks and is served in a clear capon or beef stock that carries the filling's flavour. Out of broth, a little butter or cream and parmesan is as far as tradition goes.
Pairs with: In brodo · Cream sauce · Butter and sage
Classic plates: Tortellini in brodo, Tortellini alla panna, Tortellini con burro e parmigiano.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 2 product pages.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Barilla | Cheese And Spinach Tortellini | 11 min, al dente 10 |
| Barilla | Three Cheese Tortellini | 11 min, al dente 10 |
Nutrition
Per 100 g of fresh pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 288 kcal | 11.3 g | 54.7 g | g | 2.3 g | 26 mg | 3.4 mg |
| Cooked | 131 kcal | 5.2 g | 24.9 g | g | 1.1 g | 6 mg | 1.1 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 220 g cooked, 288 kcal and 11 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.2 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes tortellini
1380 tortellini products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Italy, Germany. Of those, 134 are organic, 86 are made in Italy.
Brands: Rana (95), Giovanni Rana (67), Lustucru (57), Carrefour (28), Lustucru Selection (20), Auchan (19), Chef Select (18), Barilla (17), Avesani (15), Coop (14).
No tortellini? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Cappelletti
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
circle or square folded and pinched into a little hat
Tortelloni
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
large tortellini, folded the same way around a ricotta filling
Anolini
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
small round parcel stamped from two sheets, filled with braised beef
Cappellacci
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
large folded parcel filled with pumpkin, shaped like a peasant's hat
Other names
Agnoli, presuner or prigioneri (Capri), tortellini bolognesi, tortellini di Bologna, tortellini in brodo.
Read more
Semolina versus egg dough: the two doughs of Italian pasta
The difference between durum semolina pasta and egg pasta: flour, water, eggs, where each is made, how each cooks, and which sauces each dough wants.
Fresh versus dried pasta: neither is better, they are different foods
The difference between fresh and dried pasta: dough, texture, cook time, storage, and which shapes and sauces belong to each.
Sources
- Cheese And Spinach Tortellini, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Three Cheese Tortellini, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: fresh in broth; dried 10 to 12 min.
- Photograph: Tortellini Bolognesi.jpg, Angelo.Muratore, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169727, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, as purchased; FDC 169728, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, cooked), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Tortellini, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q20057, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.