page_title: Tortellini
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Tortellini / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Bowl of Tortellini.
context_page_description: Tortellini are ring-shaped pasta originally from the Italian region of Emilia. Traditionally they are stuffed with a mix of meat, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, egg and nutmeg and served in capon broth.
  While in the area of origin they are usually sold fresh or home-made, industrially packed, dried and refrigerated or frozen tortellini appear in many locations around the world, especially where there are large Italian communities.
context_section_description: The origin of tortellini is disputed; both Bologna and Modena, cities in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, claim to be its birthplace. OxfordDictionaries.com traces the etymology of tortellini to the diminutive form of tortello, itself a diminutive of torta ("cake" or "pie" in Italian). 
  The recipe for a dish called "torteletti" appears in 1570 from Bartolomeo Scappi. Vincenzo Tanara's writings in the mid-17th century may be responsible for the pasta's renaming to tortellini. In the 1800s, legends sprang up to explain the recipe's origins, offering a compromise.  Castelfranco Emilia, located between Bologna and Modena, is featured in one legend, in which Venus stays at an inn. Overcome by her beauty, the innkeeper spies on her through a keyhole, through which he can only see her navel. He is inspired to create a pasta in this shape. This legend would be at the origin of the term "ombelico di Venere" (Venus' navel), occasionally used to describe tortellini. In honor of this legend, an annual festival is held in Castelfranco Emilia. Another legend posits that the shape comes from Modena's architecture, which resembles a turtle.
caption: Industrially-made tortellini, easily recognizable for the extremely regular cut of the dough and the symmetrical closing of the extremities
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