Conference turris::cooks

Sounds like tortellini with Alfredo Sauce to me?  How is it different?

It may not look the same, but try:

purchase cheese filled tortellini (frozen specialty food) and then cook
to package directions.  Make an Alfredo sauce (Italians out there, got it
off the top of your head?).  Sauce the tortellini and then add a generous
portion of fresh grated parmesan and/or romano cheese (see your nearest
Italian deli for the cheese - and maybe even the tortellini FRESH instead
of frozen).

The cheese filled tortellini has lots of parsley in it - that makes it
green.  If you really had a "florentine" dish (spinach added), then you
will have to look into making your own and stuffing cannelloni pasta
with it - larger that what it sounds like you describe - or even, by
using a pastry tube, smaller tubed pasta.  The basic recipe for the 
cheese and spinach filling is:

	1 8 oz. tub ricotta cheese
	1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed
			to remove all possible water, then diced very
			fine.
	1 egg
	garlic to taste (optional to some, but I use 1 fresh clove or
			equivalent garlic powder)
	a generous handful of grated parmesan cheese (sorry, I wing it
			on this, but try approx. 1/3 cup grated cheese)

Mix together well.  Fill Pastry tube 1/2 with mixture - with large star tip
or other tip with large opening.  Parboil the selected pasta (cook for 2/3
the recommended time, then plunge into cold water to stop cooking) and drain.
Fill pasta tubes with filling, place in casserole.  Cover with sauce,
sprinkle generously with cheese, bake in pre-heated 325 degree oven for
approx. 30 minutes or until bubbling around the edges nicely.

    
    I am Italian but never heard of Aldredo Sauce. 
    
    Could it be that the sauce your are looking for is made with 
    
    - Parmesan cheese
    - Butter
    - Sour Cream or some kind of cream
    
    I wanted to help but ....
    
    Marinella
    
    
    
    
    	

    Thanks all.  The receipe in .2 sounds great.  I'm sure its some
    type of Alfredo sauce but not quite.  Another person I talked to
    thinks it has a VERY light hint of lobster taste to it (but they
    don't say it has lobster in it on the menu).  
    
    The spinich and parmesean is wrapped in this pasta dough and when
    served is rectangular and maybe 1/2 high by 6 inches long by 3
    inches wide.  It really is like a burrito but is a pasta.
    
    I think I'm going to break down and ask for the receipe but I don't
    think they will give it too me.  This is one of those receipes they
    are famed for.
    
    Karen  

>    The spinich and parmesean is wrapped in this pasta dough and when
>    served is rectangular and maybe 1/2 high by 6 inches long by 3
>    inches wide.  It really is like a burrito but is a pasta.
    
home made pasta - nearest market substitute is the largest tube pasta made..
usually canelloni tubes.  They are prepared as mentioned, partially cooked,
stuffed, and then completed baking in a sauce.

re: alfredo sauce; probably an American variation - a white, cream-based sauce.

re: asking a restaurant; not likely they will comply...BUT, write to Bon 
Appetit magazine and ASK THEM TO GET THE RECIPE...and keep watch for a 
few months.  They have a "Reader's Request" type of column that covers exactly
this type of situation.

Thanks for asking, anyway, I think the idea of a florentine stuffed canelloni
in an alfredo sauce sounds pretty good - I'm making this one for the gang
sometime soon.  Let's see, I can have a nice pseudo-ceasar's salad
(no anchovies or raw egg), garlic and herb bread, some marinated crisp-tender
veggie pickles (my own), and I'll top it off with poached pears in an
apricot coulis...or maybe raspberry coulis...and expresso and biscotti for
the finish.

    Okay her is what we got from the cook:
    
    The sauce is a Bechamel which includes:
    
    (No amounts given)
    Butter
    A Chicken Base
    Cream
    White Pepper
    Flour
    Parmesean Cheese
    Basil
    
    The noodle is basically a ravioli noodle just in massive size which
    is filled with mozzerella cheese and spinich.  Then the sauce is
    poored over it and then its topped with finely chopped tomatoes.
     
    So now does any one have a receipe for a bechamel sauce and also for
    ravioli noodle dough?  Thanks again!!  This really is GREAT stuff.
    
    karen

    Re:  .5 
    
    What do you put in your "pseudo-caesar salad"? I like the idea of
    leaving out the achovies and raw egg. My wife has been buying a caesar
    salad mix that is quite good, but I think it's dumb to buy a package if
    everything is in the pantry already!
    
    Thanks!
    
    Tom
    

>    What do you put in your "pseudo-caesar salad"? I like the idea of
>    leaving out the achovies and raw egg. My wife has been buying a caesar
>    salad mix that is quite good, but I think it's dumb to buy a package if
>    everything is in the pantry already!
    
I make a vinegarette with balsamic vinegar and very fruity olive oil:

	ratio of oil to vinegar is 1:1 (1 cup each)

I season this with 1 hardboiled egg, peeled and mashed to a paste,
Lots of black pepper, salt to taste, garlic (lots of garlic) pressed,
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, some very fine dice red onion, and
a pinch of rosemary (dried, rubbed between fingers), commercial italian
seasoning mixture (spice type of mixture), and any other herb I particularly
feel like tasting...it varies.  I mix this very well with my wire wisk in
a bowl that will hold it...and then, just before serving, I add a generous
grating of FRESH GRATED PARMESAN.  No canned cheese, please.  I use very
little of the herbs, and the garlic, lemon, pepper, salt, and egg really
make it taste like caeser salad.  

warning:  I like my salad dressing TART - you may prefer oil to vinegar
ratio of 2:1 (1 cup oil, 1/2 cup vinegar)

re .3:

Marinella:

Alfredo Sauce is what we Americans call the sauce that is served on the dish 
called Fetuccini Alfredo (sorry if I botched the spelling).  It's simple  
"arithmetic", the logic is as follows:

	Food = Fetuccini Alfredo = Pasta + Sauce
	Pasta = Fetuccini
	Food - Pasta = Sauce
	Fetuccini Alfredo - Fetuccini = Alfredo

	therefore:  Sauce = Alfredo, or Alfredo Sauce

It's the same kind of thinking that gives us "Primavera Sauce", or for that
matter "Ceasar Salad Dressing".

By the way, it is the sauce you are thinking of with cheese, cream, butter, 
sometimes egg.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
re .0:

The noodle dough can be made from 1 cup AP flour and 1 egg, well mixed, kneaded
and rolled.  Sounds like they cut out 6" rounds, place filling on half and 
fold, using water or egg wash to seal the edges.  You could make these lots 
smaller without affecting the flavor, and they would be easier to handle.  
If you make them standard ravioli size, you could use a commercial form, but 
it's not necessary.

I still don't understand what the "tail" refers to.  

Marinella:  could you give a translation for "tortelli"

Around Boston, it refers to Carla Labec's first husband, Nick Tortelli.

				-JP