Tortellino Festival: the battle for Bologna’s best pasta

Tortellini is a special dish for special occasions.
But every year there's a way to find out the restaurant that makes the best tortellini in Bologna. ​

Oct.4th is St.Petronio, a very important day for Bologna. Lots of celebrations, parties and one unique event for foodies.

Tour Tlen(tortellino in our slang) Association created this event with the aim of having together the best chefs of Bologna and make them challenge our most popular pasta.

Just 2 rules:

1. the dough must be handmade with a wood rolling pin
2. the shape of tortellino must be the classic one.

Except for those, every chef is free to create and innovate, mix and combine.
Tortellino Festival takes place in the stunning hall of Palazzo Re Enzo, just in front of Piazza Maggiore.

​With 20€ you can have 5 different tastings of tortellini.

I carefully selected and tried 3 different tortellini:

Acqua Pazza

My first choice. I went straight to them to taste their fish tortellini with ray, anchovies, buffalo mozzarella in butter and truffle sauce.

I've first run into this fish restaurant just outside Bologna at Mangirò food walk, where they prepared an amazing shrimp with gazpacho, and I was looking forward to meeting them again.

​Hardcore Bolognesi can be skeptical about a fish tortellino, but for me, it was just a perfect and well-balanced dish.

Ristorante Cesoia

I was scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed when I encountered a photo of a red&blue tortellini. I first thought about a well-made work of Photoshop, but then I read and realized it was an idea by Pietro Montanari. This young chef has a family tradition in Bologna and took Ristorante Cesoia by the hands of his grandfather 3 years ago.

But how to make it look like them?

I'm curious, I asked him. He decided to separate the filling: on the red one, he mixed the pork loin and mortadella in the dough, for the blue ones. And he put the pollanca (pullet) with some squid ink and dried kale.

This tortellini weren't just an aesthetic divertissement, but a real example of the skills and imagination of this young guy.

Massimiliano Poggi

Finally a classic tortellino.
Cooked in beef and capon broth by the hands of Max Poggi, probably one of the most underrated chefs of Bologna.

Max is not one of the Michelin Stars restaurants in Bologna.
He prefers to stay in the kitchen rather than walking around the tables, but his cuisine has nothing to envy to awarded restaurants of the area.

He well combines modern techniques and his grandmother's tips, he respects the tradition, but looks forward to innovation and collaboration. A dinner at his restaurant in Trebbo di Reno is worth a special occasion.

Like a good bowl of hot tortellini.