Piacenza-style Anolini

With the arrival of winter, Emilian cuisine warms up with hearty and traditional dishes, such as Piacenza-style anolini. This specialty, typical of the province of Piacenza, is a perfect example of how simple ingredients can transform into a comforting food embrace. The anolini, small ravioli filled with a meat and herb mixture, are served in a warm broth, ideal for cold family evenings. The preparation requires a cooking technique that involves a slowly cooked beef stracotto over three days, allowing the flavors to meld and intensify. The browning in butter, along with onion, carrot, and celery, gives the dish a depth of flavor that is hard to match. Served in a rich broth, the anolini become a warm and convivial hug, perfect for a Sunday lunch or a dinner among friends. With a glass of red wine to complete the meal, this recipe represents the essence of Emilian cuisine, made with passion and genuine ingredients.

For the stracotto, use a good piece of beef, cooking it in three stages over three days. Prepare it by inserting two cloves of garlic, browning it in butter, and adding a small onion, a carrot, a stalk of celery, salt, and pepper. Once browned, deglaze with a good glass of red wine, let the wine evaporate, then add broth, allowing it to simmer gently for at least a couple of hours. Let it rest overnight, and the next day, put it back on the heat for three hours, repeating the ritual on the third day. Chop the resulting stracotto with a mezzaluna; the remaining sauce in the pan will be used to sauté the breadcrumbs, which will then be mixed with the chopped stracotto, eggs, cheese, and nutmeg. Mix everything well to obtain a homogeneous dough. With flour and eggs, prepare the pasta and roll it out into a thin sheet, placing small balls of filling about one centimeter in diameter on one side, spaced five to six cm apart. Fold the pasta over to cover the filling, and cut it with the appropriate shape, into squares or half-moons. Cook the anolini in broth made with beef, hen or capon, and pork, but be careful, the three meats should be cooked separately and the resulting broths mixed later, measuring the quantity to obtain a flavorful but not greasy, clear broth, savory yet delicately flavored. The classic 'brodo in terza.'