Tortelli on the slab
(In dialect: “i tortèlle” or “i tortéij in tla lastra”)

Ingredients for one rolled-out pastry:
Dough for the rolled-out pastry: 1 Kg wheat flour; water, salt;
Filling: Kg 1 of potatoes; g. 200 of bacon fat; 2 eggs; 2-3 garlic cloves; salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare the filling with boiled and then smashed potatoes; add two eggs and chopped bacon fat previously browned with garlic.
With a rolling pin, roll out a round and thin pastry made of wheat flour, water and salt. Spread uniformly the filling on a half of the rolled out pastry, fold the other half on it and seal the edges of this “half moon” with a wheel.
Use the rolling pin to press on the rolled-out pastry in order to obtain a netlike print with squares of 10-12 cm per side.
With the pastry cutting wheel follow the prints left by the rolling pin to obtain many squares (the “tortelli”) and press with your fingertips on the borders in order to make sure that the squares are closed.
Each tortello has to be cooked (for about 3-4 minutes) on a hot slab located on the fireplace. You have to turn the tortello many times until it looks slightly scorched on both sides.
Nowadays it is a general practice and easier to cook the tortelli on the terra cotta baking tray (used also for the “piadina romagnola”) or a cast iron plate located on the cooker or on the hot plate of the stove.
Depending on the season, the filling can be obtained with potatoes and pumpkins or adding cabbages or very good "cardline" (the thistles growing in the meadows at high altitudes).
The “tortelli” on the slab, very common in the Savio upper valley, used to be eaten as a full meal, without anything else, just a glass of wine. In all the households they were (and still are) prepared in sufficient quantity to be offered to guests and feed all the family for several days.