classic tortellini in brodo; capon stock

OK, let's start with the brodo.

Despite the fact that I have a freezerfull of brown chicken stock, I wanted to do the right thing and make the recipe as it is in the book, and this recipe calls for capon stock. So I set out to find a capon.

Turns out that a capon is an altered rooster, one that has lost its, um, cock-a-doodle-doo. Probably in a horrible barnyard accident. There are sharp things everywhere in those places. You'd think that would make the old bird more than a little bitter, but really just makes it tougher and more full of flavor somehow. I want to stop thinking about how and why that happens. Right now.


I went to several stores that I thought might carry capon, but didn't find it. But I felt like I had seen it in a store before. So I thought really, really hard about it, and decided that it might just be in the store I used to do most of my shopping in, a large Publix that I now have to pass two smaller Publi to get to. Went there, and sure enough, there they were in the freezer.

They were pretty expensive for what amounts to old chicken, but I got over it.

So after making the stock, I learned another thing about capon: They have a lot of gelatin in their bones. That stock set up like jello before I even put it in the fridge. Awesome.

So the next step was to make the filling, which meant spinning some chicken, pancetta and mortadella in a food processor ...


... until it was finely chopped.


Then I made pasta using the previously posted pasta process. This time, instead of using the long sheets, I cut them into little, um, trapezoids. The recipe calls for squares, but, I mean, anyone can cut a square. Right?


Each, um, let's just say "square" got a spoon of filling …


Folded over ...


sealed ...

The opposing tips were brought together ...


And we have a … wait, let's get a close up.


Is that a wonton? It looks like a wonton. It was supposed to be a tortellini. Do tortellini and wontons look the same? Has anyone investigated this? I suspect Marco Polo is involved.

Oh well, whatever they are, they get tossed into the heated broth, and next thing you know, there's soup.

And while I hesitate to consider what the per-ounce cost of that stock was when compared to regular chicken stock, it was really good.

Up next: I really hope smoke sable. But we'll see. I suck at iMovie.