In 2016 in Modena, the idea and willingness of some mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders gave birth to the experience of Tortellante, a social promotion association that supports children and their families, creating a place for socialisation and sharing. A project that combines gastronomic tradition, social inclusion and training, offering children the opportunity to undertake a career path, through the production of fresh pasta, and build a future for themselves. Lucrezia Lanzani interviews Erika Coppelli, chairman of the social promotion association Tortellante for FARE INSIEME Charity
FARE INSIEME CHARITY is the spin-off of the FARE INSIEME project dedicated to the presentation of some onlus and non-profit associations with roots in the area around Bologna, Ferrara and Modena and that carry out extraordinarily important and crucial work for the entire community. Here are some of their stories
by Lucrezia Lanzani*
“Tortellino: pasta with broth, resembling a roll of egg pasta filled with minced meat and other ingredients and aromas, rolled up on itself to form a ring.”
In 2016, in Modena, within an association of parents of children with autism spectrum disorders, the need to help them build a dignified future emerged. In fact, once school is over, many of these children feel isolated, empty, due to the lack of integration with their peers. «The transition to the adult world is more complicated for them. Why should we ruin all the therapeutic rehabilitation courses they have taken? This is why we wanted to find a solution. During the Christmas period, a mother had gathered her autistic son and his grandmother around a table and together they had made tortellini. I must say that I thought it was a brilliant idea. This is how Tortellante was born. In a room with rolling pins, pasta machines and everything else needed, we called our children's grandmothers to follow them and teach them how to make tortellini. And I must admit that the combination turned out to be a winning one. Two fragilities that are very similar: the elderly, at their age, begin to feel less useful to society, they feel a bit isolated. We understood that for our children it was a useful tool», says Erika Coppelli, chairman of the social promotion association Tortellante since 2018.
Tortellante is a project that combines gastronomic tradition, social inclusion and training in a multifunctional place that integrates the laboratory and the shop: centres for socialisation and occupational and rehabilitative therapies. With 40 families involved, a scientific staff and many volunteers, the project represents a concrete response to the "after us", offering the children tools to become independent and to build social relationships. The children work, they make tortellini, so they learn to do a useful, dignified, and necessary job. Above the laboratory, there is an apartment that functions as a training place to build autonomy where they learn everything that will be useful to them in the future, for when they grow up and stop receiving support from their parents.
Tortellante's activities are supported by a highly qualified scientific team specialised in autism, which helps the children grow in their skills and build individual life projects. «We offer tortellini and use excellent local suppliers. We have several lines, one of which is 100% artisanal, and we supply all of Massimo Bottura's restaurants, to give an idea of the quality of our products. For a few months we have been working on the 'I Work' ('Io Lavoro') project, which consists of placing ten children - out of the forty we started with - in the 'La pasta di Celestino' pasta factory, to produce tortellini that will end up on supermarket shelves. We don't just make tortellini to eat, we also make key rings for sale. These, together with the events we organise, are certainly ways to finance the association and implement various autonomy projects in everyday life» adds Coppelli. In addition to working with young people, Tortellante also carries out projects with families, such as ‘Parent Training’, to provide psychological support in the transition to adulthood.
«The team is made up of educators, psychotherapists, psychiatric rehabilitation technicians, occupational therapists. We wanted them all to be young, in fact, they are almost all of the same age as our kids, ranging from 18 to 35 years old. We believe a lot in young people. They have so much energy, willingness to do a lot, to experiment and above all they can grow together with our children and therefore give continuity to a future path. Then, since we opened the Bottega, the kids have joined the chef and the Bottega assistant. We have also created a line of “ugly but good” tortellini with meat sauce, because nothing is thrown away. We owe a lot to Massimo Bottura. He and his wife Lara immediately embraced the project. He is our number one testimonial, he gives advice to the kids, helps them a lot, and also recommended suppliers and gave us some recipes. Also very important is the support of Professor Giuseppe Plazzi, director of the School of Specialisation in Child Neuropsychiatry at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, with whom we have demonstrated an improvement in skills and who has allowed the Tortellante experience to have a publication also in the scientific field», continues Coppelli.
Thanks to his dedication, the association has become a point of reference at the territorial, national and international level. «In 2023-2024 some of our kids went to cook in Rome, together with the brigade of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, and in 2025 they returned for a training internship at the Quirinale. It is wonderful that our children are in contact with an institutional, formal world, to learn to separate themselves from the family. In June 2024 we were at the Annual Conference of the UN Convention, in New York, as part of the Side Event on inclusion in Italian cuisine, and at the G7 on disability in Assisi, to serve ministers from all over the world», concludes Erika Coppelli. For Tortellante Aps, it is important to work on the well-being of children at 360°, for this reason, it is working on the activation of the "Health Passport": twelve retired medical specialists will take care of carrying out prevention check-ups on children and of providing a customised document to facilitate access to medical care for people with autism.
Tortellante is therefore the demonstration of how much a tortellino can impact a person's life and their growth, their autonomy, for a future that is more inclusive and conscious.
*Lucrezia Lanzani is a student at the Steam Emilia High School. She is seventeen years old and has always been interested in social issues. She has been volunteering for three years in different organisations in her community.
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