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Agnolotti

agnolotti del plinsay ahn-yoh-LOT-tee del pleen

Pinched parcels of leftover roast.

DDated textFamily D · Mediterranean filled pasta

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Region
Italy
First record
1791 · Empires & migration
Fold
Leaf parcel or pillow
Cooked
Boiled
Agnolotti del plin
As served. Photo Andrea Marchisio, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Wrapper
Wheat doughPinched
Filling
Roast meats, vegetables
Cooked
Boiled
Size
About 2 cm across

Tastes of

  • roast meat
  • butter
  • sage
  • roast juices

Texture

  • tiny, tender

Field notes

Story

Small Piedmontese pasta, pinched ("plin") around fillings of roast meat and vegetables.

How to eat it
With butter and sage, roast juices, or dry in a napkin ("nel tovagliolo").
When
Sunday and feast days.

Did you know "Plin" is Piedmontese for "pinch".

Where

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From Piedmont.

  • OriginPiedmont

Evidence

Fairly sure. A dated text records it by 1791.

We list 5 sources: 3 dated texts, 1 secondary, 1 legend. How grading works.

First record 'Agnellotti macheronati' recipe in Il cuoco reale e cittadino, Bologna 1791 (D, via AtLiTeG); first Piedmontese printed recipes Vialardi, Turin 1854 (D, opened)

Strongest sources

  • D

    Vocabolario dinamico dell'italiano moderno – AtLiTeG, lemma 'agnolotto'

    Dated text · Monica Alba (entry, 31 May 2024), AtLiTeG project · 1643 (word); 1791 (recipe)

    AtLiTeG historical dictionary of Italian gastronomic language, entry 'agnolotto': first attestation 'agnellotto' 1643 (Beridio Darpe = Piero de' Bardi, Avino Avolio Ottone e Berlinghier, a Florentine mock-epic poem);… AtLiTeG historical dictionary of Italian gastronomic language, entry 'agnolotto': first attestation 'agnellotto' 1643 (Beridio Darpe = Piero de' Bardi, Avino Avolio Ottone e Berlinghier, a Florentine mock-epic poem); first recipe in its corpus 'Agnellotti macheronati' in Il cuoco reale e cittadino (Bologna, 1791, capon farce); 'agnolotti' 1814 (La nuovissima cucina economica, Rome). Etymology: DELIN/LEI from *anegliotti 'little rings' (Latin anulus); lamb and 'Angelotu' theories also listed.
  • D

    Trattato di cucina, pasticceria moderna, credenza e relativa confettureria (Torino, 1854)

    Dated text · Giovanni Vialardi; digitised by Internet Archive · 1854

    Giovanni Vialardi, cook to the House of Savoy, prints several recipes: 'Zuppa di agnelotti al sugo' (no. 39, pasta sheet, farce dropped in lines, covered, pressed with the fingers, cut round), 'Agnelotti alla borghese'… Giovanni Vialardi, cook to the House of Savoy, prints several recipes: 'Zuppa di agnelotti al sugo' (no. 39, pasta sheet, farce dropped in lines, covered, pressed with the fingers, cut round), 'Agnelotti alla borghese' (no. 40, farce of cooked veal, beef or fowl) and a chapter of 'Agnolotti' (truffled, di magro, alla casalinga).
  • D

    Parole del cibo in area piemontese

    Dated text · Carla Marcato (Università di Udine), Editura Universităţii de Vest, 2005 (via Diacronia.ro, BDD-V1895) · 1854

    Scholarly study of Piedmontese food words: Vialardi (1854) uses 'agnelotti' (p. 43) as a Piedmontese regionalism; the name may come from Piedmontese agnolòt/agnulòt; DELI (Cortelazzo–Zolli) rejects the 'agnello' (lamb)… Scholarly study of Piedmontese food words: Vialardi (1854) uses 'agnelotti' (p. 43) as a Piedmontese regionalism; the name may come from Piedmontese agnolòt/agnulòt; DELI (Cortelazzo–Zolli) rejects the 'agnello' (lamb) etymology; cognates agnulòt (Pavia), agnolén (Parma), agnolì (Cremona/Brescia), anolini.
Show all 5 sources

Found by research and reviewed, October 2026.

The tagline and story are editorial; facts trace to the atlas research.

Family D

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