Ravioli filled with red beets is the colorful pasta dish of Olympic host Cortina

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Every corner of Italy has its own culinary traditions, from carbonara in Rome to tortellini in Bologna. Winter Olympics co-host Cortina d’Ampezzo's signature dish is the colorful, stuffed pasta known as casunziei.

The ravioli-type dish, also known as casunziei all’Ampezzana, consists of homemade half-moon shaped pasta filled with boiled beets, topped with a sauce of melted butter, Parmesan cheese and poppy seeds.

It’s a simple dish that harks back to the Alpine region's poorer past — long before Cortina transformed into a winter playground for the international jet set. Even in the coldest days of winter, local families had the ingredients in their cupboards. Casunziei (pronounced cah-SOON-zi-eh) can also have other fillings replacing beets.

“It’s a typical local dish. My favorite casunziei are the ones cooked by my grandmother — the spinach ones,” Stefania Constantini, a defending Olympic curling champion in mixed doubles and a Cortina native, told The Associated Press.

Casunziei is linked to Cortina's Ladin culture that stretches back a millennium. And they can still be sampled at many Cortina establishments — both in high-end restaurants and more local, rustic spots.

Gianluca Belli, a chef at the Michelin-starred Ristorante Tivoli, showed the AP how to make casunziei while Luca Noale, manager of restaurant The Roof, translated and explained the steps.

1. Start by making the pasta one day before serving. Dump flour onto working surface and form a well in the middle with your fingers. Crack eggs into the center of the well. Use a fork to slowly incorporate the egg into the flour. When it is completely mixed in, start to knead the mixture with your hands until it becomes smooth. Store in the refrigerator overnight.

2. The next day, peel and boil the beets until tender (about two hours) then place in a food processor and puree. Transfer to a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Divide the pasta mixture into four pieces and flatten with a rolling pin. Then run through a pasta maker on the thinnest setting until it becomes almost transparent.

4. Using a water glass for the outline, cut circles of pasta and use a pastry bag or a tablespoon to add the beet puree into the center of each circle. Fold the pasta over the filling to form half-moon shapes and press the edges together with a fork.

5. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the filled pasta to the pot. When the pasta rises to the water’s surface (after about one minute), remove and drain.

6. Melt the butter in a pan until it browns.

7. Grate Parmesan onto plate, add the casunziei on top of the cheese and top with the browned butter. Add poppy seeds and serve immediately.

As with many Italian dishes, the flavors are elevated by the wine. But which to choose?

“The sweetness of the beets," Noale said, "needs to be balanced by a light-bodied wine.”

He suggests pairing “a young, local pinot nero,” otherwise known as pinot noir.

Cortina will host women’s Alpine skiing, sliding sports (bobsled, luge and skeleton) and curling during the Games.

Other venues for these Olympics are spread out all over northern Italy: skating sports in Milan; freestyle skiing and snowboarding in Livigno; men’s Alpine skiing in Bormio; Nordic sports in Val di Fiemme and biathlon in Anterselva.

The great distances between clusters mean that cuisine will vary, too, from one area to another.

One of Milan’s most famous dishes is ossobuco (veal shank with bone marrow) served with risotto Milanese (saffron-flavored rice).

Bormio is known for its bresaola (dried, cured beef).

Canederli (bread-and-prosciutto dumplings) are made in Val di Fiemme and Anterselva.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Local chef Gianluca Belli demonstrates how to make Casunziei, a type of ravioli that is Cortina's signature dish, during a pasta-making tutorial at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Local chef Gianluca Belli demonstrates how to make Casunziei, a type of ravioli that is Cortina's signature dish, during a pasta-making tutorial at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Local chef Gianluca Belli demonstrates how to make Casunziei, a type of ravioli that is Cortina's signature dish, during a pasta-making tutorial at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Local chef Gianluca Belli demonstrates how to make Casunziei, a type of ravioli that is Cortina's signature dish, during a pasta-making tutorial at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Local chef Gianluca Belli demonstrates how to make Casunziei, a type of ravioli that is Cortina's signature dish, during a pasta-making tutorial at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.

The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.

Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.

“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.

Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.

“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.

In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.

Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.

Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.

“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”

Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”

For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.

Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.

The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.

Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.

Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.

Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.

Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.

Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.

In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.

Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.

Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.

However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)