Tortellini

The stuffed pasta of Bologna par excellence; there are two legends attached to their origins. The first one tells of an innkeeper who, having spied through the keyhole of a bedroom a beautiful maiden lying naked, became so excited by her navel that he had to rush into the kitchen and reproduce it with the pasta dough that was waiting to be used. In the other legend it was the goddess Venus who was spied naked by the innkeeper. Tortellini do look like belly buttons and the recipe here tells you how to make them. Tortellini are usually stuffed with meat and served in brodo, in a delicate chicken stock, like a soup.