Pigeon Tortellini Recipe - How to Make Squab, Pigeon or Dove Tortellini (2024)

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Course: Pasta

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 6 people

Prep Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

DOUGH

• ▢ 10 ounces of all-purpose flour, about 2 cups
• ▢ 2 eggs
• ▢ 1 ounce of water, about 3 tablespoons

FILLING

• ▢ 3 pigeons or teal, or 6 doves
• ▢ Salt
• ▢ 3 tablespoons duck fat, butter or olive oil
• ▢ 4 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
• ▢ 1/4 cup sweet white wine or sherry
• ▢ A small pinch of celery seed
• ▢ 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• ▢ Black pepper to taste

SAUCE

• ▢ 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• ▢ 8 juniper berries, mashed
• ▢ Grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, or garnish

• To make the dough, make a well in the flour and drop the eggs and water in. scramble the eggs in the center with a fork and then incorporate the flour until you get a shaggy mass. Knead this well for 6 to 8 minutes, then wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for an hour. Alternatively, if you have a vacuum sealer, you can seal the dough, which will hydrate the dough instantly.

• To make the filling, salt the pigeons well while you heat up the duck fat in an ovenproof pan. Pat the birds dry and brown them well on all sides. Take your time to do this: You want them well browned. When you start this process, preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the pigeons are browned, add the garlic cloves to the pan and pop it into the oven and roast for 30 minutes.

• When the pigeons have cooked, remove the pigeons and garlic to a plate to cool. Set the pan on the stove (remember the handle is hot!!) and deglaze all that browned goodness with the sweet wine. Use a wooden spoon to scrape down the pan to incorporate everything. Let this boil for a few minutes, then turn off the heat. Pick off all the meat from the pigeons (use what's left for stock if you want.) and remove the skins from the garlic.

• Chop the meat and garlic roughly and add it to a food processor. Add the celery seed, rosemary and black pepper, as well as some of the liquid and fat from the roasting pan and buzz everything into a fairly smooth paste. Taste and add salt if you need to. You might need all of the pan liquid, you might not. Eyeball it.

• Roll out the dough in a pasta maker or with a rolling pin. I roll mine out to No. 7 on my Atlas, with is two stops from the thinnest setting. You don't want it ultra thin or the filling will soak through. Use something round to cut out circles of about 3 inches across -- these are largish tortelli, not strictly tortellini. Put a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of the circle and fold it into a half-moon, removing as much air as possible. You might need to wet the edges with a little water. Bring the ends of the half moon together and squish them to make the tortelli. You might need to flip the edges up to get that shape. This recipe makes about 40 to 45 tortelli, or twice that many tortellini if you make them small. Set each one on a baking sheet that you've dusted with semolina flour or fine cornmeal.

• To finish, melt the butter in a wide pan and add the juniper and rosemary. Keep this over low heat while you boil some water; this allows the flavors to infuse in the butter. Boil the tortellini until they float, and then for 1 minute more. Move to the butter, toss to coat and put them on the plate. Grate some cheese over them and serve at once.