Piedmontese agnolotti del plin: thin egg pasta, a filling of roast veal and pork with Savoy cabbage, and the roast juices reduced with butter.
Introduction
Agnolotti del plin are the smallest filled pasta in Piedmont and the one that takes the most patience to make. The name comes from the gesture: plin in Piedmontese is the pinch, the one the fingers give the pasta sheet to close each mouthful, and which leaves it with its shape of a ruffled handkerchief. Inside there is a filling of roast meats, veal and pork, minced with the vegetables, the parmigiano and a hint of nutmeg; outside, instead of a sauce, there are the roast juices themselves, loosened with stock and made glossy with butter. It is a dish built on a single cooking: the meat that fills the pasta and the sauce that dresses it come out of the same pot.
Here we give the version from the Langhe and the Monferrato, with the pasta made with plenty of yolks and rolled very thin, almost transparent, and the filling in the smallest amount, the size of a hazelnut. These are the two rules that make the difference between a plin and any old raviolo: the pasta must disappear in the mouth, the filling must be tasted. The work is long but it divides well: the roast and the filling can be prepared the day before, and the next day only the pasta and the pinching are left.
In the glass we put the Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese 'Origine' by Tenuta Vallone, the pale, spicy red from Conzano, whose acidity cleans the butter of the sauce off the palate mouthful after mouthful. For the pasta we use the Aurum type 1 soft wheat flour by Mulino Terrevive, stone-ground, which gives a more fragrant and slightly more rustic dough than 00 flour.
The Story of Agnolotti del Plin
Agnolotti are a dish of leftovers, like almost all the filled pastas of the North. In the farmhouses of the Langhe, the Roero and the Monferrato the Sunday roast, or the boiled meat, was never finished in a single meal: what was left was minced with vegetables from the garden, bound with eggs and cheese and sealed in the pasta, and the next day it became the first course of the following feast. That is why the filling has never had a single recipe: every family put in the meats it had, veal, pork, sometimes rabbit, and the vegetables of the season, Savoy cabbage in winter, spinach or escarole in the other months.
The plin is the most diminutive version of this tradition, the one from the Langhe and the Alto Monferrato. The pinch that gives it its name is not just an affectation: closing the pasta with the fingers forms a small pocket that holds on to the dressing, and that is why the plin is dressed with very little, the roast gravy or melted butter with sage. In the osterias of the Langhe there are even those who serve them with nothing at all, just drained and wrapped in a napkin, to be eaten with the hands: it is the strictest way to judge a filling. On the origin of the word agnolotto there are many stories and none is proven, from the cook Angiolino of the Monferrato legends to the ring of pasta they were cut from; what is certain is that today the plin is the first course Piedmont puts on the table on important days, above all in autumn, in the season of truffles and new wine.
Ingredients
For the roast
- boneless veal (shoulder or chuck)300 g
- pork loin300 g
- butter40 g
- Filtered Veneto Extra Virgin Olive Oil del Grappa 500ml2 tablespoons
- onion1
- carrot1
- celery stalk1
- garlic1 clove
- rosemary and sage1 sprig and 4 leaves
- dry red wine150 ml
- meat stock500 ml
For the filling
- Savoy cabbage300 g
- grated parmigiano80 g
- eggs2
- nutmegto taste
- salt and pepperto taste
For the dough
- Aurum Farina di Grano tenero tipo 1400 g
- eggs3
- egg yolks4
To dress
- butter30 g
- grated parmigiano, to serveto taste
Equipment Needed
- Heavy-based casserole with a lid
- Meat grinder or food processor
- Pasta machine or long rolling pin
- Fluted pasta wheel
- Fine-mesh sieve for the juices
- Trays dusted with semolina for the plin
Tip: The pasta for plin is rolled until you can see the colour of the work surface through it: with the machine that means going to the second-to-last setting. Work one strip at a time and keep the rest covered with a tea towel, because pasta this thin dries out in a few minutes and then will no longer seal when pinched.
How to Make Agnolotti del Plin with Roast Gravy — Piedmontese Recipe
The roast
Cut the veal and pork into large pieces, about 5 cm. In a heavy-based casserole heat the butter with the oil and brown the meat over a high heat, on all sides, until it has a dark crust: it is from that crust that the gravy will come. Add the onion, carrot and celery cut into pieces, the crushed garlic, the rosemary and the sage, and let them take on flavour for a few minutes. Deglaze with the red wine, let it evaporate, then cover and cook over a low heat for about an hour and a half, adding a ladle of stock whenever the bottom dries out. The meat is ready when it falls apart under the fork.
Chef's tip: Do not wash the casserole: the dark residue stuck to the bottom is the roast gravy, and it is recovered at the end with the stock.
The filling
Take the meat out of the casserole together with the vegetables, discarding the rosemary and sage, and set them aside; leave the cooking juices in the casserole. Boil the Savoy cabbage in salted water for 10 minutes, drain it, squeeze it well and toss it for a few minutes in a frying pan with a spoonful of the roast juices. Put the meat, the vegetables from the roast and the cabbage through the meat grinder, then mix with the parmigiano, the eggs, a grating of nutmeg, salt and pepper: the filling must be compact and soft, not wet. Meanwhile knead the flour with the eggs and yolks into a smooth, elastic dough, wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.
Chef's tip: The filling can be made the day before and kept in the fridge well covered: the next day it is firmer and easier to portion.
The plin
Roll the pasta into very thin strips, about 6 cm wide. Along the strip, in the lower half, place little balls of filling the size of a hazelnut, 2 cm apart. Fold the lower edge of the pasta over the filling until it is covered, then pinch the pasta between one ball and the next with thumb and forefinger, pressing firmly: that is the plin. With the fluted wheel trim the edge along the strip, then cut between one pinch and the next with a decisive stroke, so that each agnolotto closes on itself and takes its fold. Line the plin up on a tray dusted with semolina, without overlapping them.
Chef's tip: If the pasta will not seal, run a finger barely dampened with water along the edge. No more than that: pasta that is too moist sticks to the tray.
The gravy and the cooking
Put the casserole with the roast juices back on the heat, pour in the rest of the hot stock and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen everything that is stuck. Let it reduce over a medium heat for about ten minutes, then strain it through the sieve: what should remain is a dark, glossy, flowing gravy. Cook the plin in plenty of salted water for 2-3 minutes, until they float to the surface. Lift them out with a slotted spoon straight into the pan with the gravy, add the butter and toss briefly over a low heat, just long enough for it to bind. Serve at once, with a little parmigiano on the side.
Chef's tip: The roast gravy should not swim on the plate: two tablespoons per serving are enough. The plin should come out glossy, not drowned.
Wine to Pair with Agnolotti del Plin
Agnolotti del plin look like a delicate dish and are not entirely so, and the wine should be chosen by looking inside the pasta, not outside. Outside there is a very thin egg pasta and a dressing that is little more than a film: the roast gravy is not a ragù, it is the residue from the pan loosened with a ladle of stock and reduced, glossy and dark, with the butter and the gelatine of the meat in it. Inside, on the other hand, there is a filling of roast meats, veal and pork, bound with parmigiano, eggs and vegetables, scented with rosemary and nutmeg. Two demands follow from this. The first is acidity: butter, yolks and cooking juices coat the mouth, and with every mouthful something is needed to clean it. The second is proportion: a plin weighs a few grams and is eaten by the spoonful, and a structured, alcoholic red covers the pasta and the filling together, leaving only the oak and the meat in the mouth. Tannin can be there, in fact it helps, because it finds in the roast the proteins to settle on; but it must be fine, not massive. That is why in Piedmont agnolotti are drunk with the leaner reds of the house, and the great aged Nebbiolos are left for the main courses.
The Red We Recommend
Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese DOC 'Origine' — Tenuta Vallone — The **Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese 'Origine' by Tenuta Vallone** is made at Conzano, in the Monferrato Casalese, a few hills away from the osterias where agnolotti del plin are the Sunday first course. It is a pale red, light and brilliant ruby, and anyone who judges it by its colour expects a weak wine: in the mouth, instead, it has a lively acidity and a fine, dry tannin, born of the grape's many seeds. These are the two things needed here. The acidity lifts the butter and the roast juices off the tongue and resets the mouth between one spoonful and the next; the tannin, fine as it is, rests on the proteins of the meat in the filling without turning rough. Seventeen months in steel only, no wood: there is no vanilla to add itself to the gravy, and the grape's spicy profile of small red fruits meets the rosemary and nutmeg of the filling instead of covering them. The 13,5% vol is also the right measure for a first course. The limit has to be stated, and it is the reverse of the virtue: the body is light, and if the roast gravy is reduced very thick and generous, or if there is a lot of pork in the filling, the Grignolino holds up but does not fill, and the finish shortens. With a dressing that is just a film, or with agnolotti in butter and sage, it is the most fitting glass there is. Serve it cool, at 14 °C: any warmer and it loses its verve, and verve is its job.
Want to know more about the grape? our guide to Grignolino
The Territorial Alternative
Monferrato DOC Nebbiolo Superiore BIO — Tenuta Vallone — Same cellar, same commune, and the road to take when the gravy is the one for grand occasions. The **Monferrato DOC Nebbiolo Superiore by Tenuta Vallone** comes from vineyards farmed under certified organic agriculture at Conzano, and it is a different Nebbiolo from that of the Langhe: more immediate, fresher, with a tannin the technical sheet describes as fine and soft rather than austere. Twelve months in steel and then thirteen in barriques and tonneaux give it the body the Grignolino lacks, and a scent of berries and rose with a spicy background. On the plate it works like this: the denser tannin finds, in the veal and pork filling and in the gelatine of the juices, exactly the proteins to settle on, and the acidity typical of the grape keeps cleaning away the butter. It is the right wine when the roast gravy has been reduced for a long time, dark and generous, or when the agnolotti are the only dish of the lunch. The limit is symmetrical: on agnolotti dressed only with butter, or served dry in the napkin, the oak and the tannin pass over the pasta, and there the Grignolino wins. Here too the alcohol is 13,5% vol, so the weight comes from the structure and not from the degrees. There are 468 numbered bottles at 24 €: open it half an hour ahead and serve it at 16-18 °C.
Want to know more about the grape? our guide to Nebbiolo
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Bold Helles Beer — Norah's Farm — With a filled pasta the beer must not compete with the filling: it has to do the job the wine does with its acidity, and do it without covering the pasta. The **Bold Helles by Norah's Farm** is a bottom-fermented blonde in the Bavarian style, with a malt the producer marks at halfway (●●○○) and a barely hinted hop (●○○○). Its flavour is that of malted grain, which is to say the same family as the egg pasta and the crust of the roast, and the slightly dry, bitter finish closes the mouthful without leaving sweetness. The carbonation does the rest, carrying the butter and the juices out of the mouth mechanically, with every sip. And at 4,8% vol it remains a table beer, one that accompanies a first course without weighing down the lunch. The limit is the body: faced with a dense, heavily reduced roast gravy, with its toasted and caramelised notes, a Helles falls behind, and there a darker beer would be needed. With a dressing that is just a film, or with agnolotti in butter, it is instead a clean and easy choice. Serve it at 6-8 °C, in a tall glass, keeping the head.
Want to know more about the style? pale craft beers
Variations
- With butter and sage: without the roast gravy, the plin are tossed in the pan with 80 g of melted butter and a few sage leaves, barely allowed to sizzle. It is the most common dressing in the trattorias and the one that lets the filling come through best; in this case all the roast juices go into the filling.
- In the napkin: as in the osterias of the Langhe, the plin are drained and served dry, with no dressing at all, wrapped in a warm linen napkin, to be picked up with the fingers. It only works with a well-seasoned filling and very thin pasta, and it is the strictest way to judge them.
- With white truffle: in the right season, from October to December, plin dressed only with melted butter are finished at the table with a few shavings of white Alba truffle. With the roast gravy the truffle gets lost: it is one or the other.
- With rabbit: in many homes in the Roero and the Monferrato a third of roast rabbit meat is added to the veal and pork, which makes the filling more delicate. It is cooked in the same casserole, together with the other meats.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between agnolotti and agnolotti del plin?
Piedmontese agnolotti are a family of meat-filled pastas; agnolotti del plin are the smallest version, typical of the Langhe and the Monferrato, closed with a pinch of the fingers between one portion of filling and the next. The other agnolotti, the square or half-moon ones, are larger and have a plain edge. In the plin the ratio changes: little pasta, very thin, and a filling you can taste in every mouthful.
Which vegetable goes into the filling?
It depends on the season and on the family. In autumn and winter Savoy cabbage is used, which gives sweetness; in the other months spinach or escarole. There should not be much of it, about half the weight of the meat, and it must be squeezed carefully: if water remains, the filling softens and soaks the pasta from the inside.
Can agnolotti del plin be frozen?
Yes, and it is the best way to keep them. Lay them out raw on a tray dusted with semolina, well spaced, and put them in the freezer until hard; then transfer them to a bag. Cook them still frozen, straight into boiling water, adding a minute to the cooking time. Kept in the fridge, on the other hand, they last only a day, because the thin pasta turns damp.
Can you make the roast gravy without making the roast?
Not really, and that is the point of the recipe: the gravy is the cooking juices of the same meat that ends up in the filling. Anyone using leftovers from a roast already cooked can save its juices and stretch them with a little stock, but a shop-bought stock base or a stock cube does not give the same thing. If there is no gravy, it is better to dress the plin with butter and sage.
Why do plin open during cooking?
Almost always for three reasons: the pasta dried out before it was closed, the filling was too moist, or air was left around the ball of filling. The remedy is to work one strip at a time, squeeze the vegetables well and press the pasta around the filling before pinching. Water boiling too hard also opens them: once you have dropped them in, turn the boil down.
