Desserts
Pettole (fried sweet pasta balls)
Ingredienti:
- 500 gr of flour
- 1 brewer’s yeast
- Cooked wine of figs
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 coffeespoon of table salt
- 1 boiled potato
Preparation:
Into a large bowl pour flour, the boiled and strained potato, salt and brewer’s yeast (previously melted in a glass of lukewarm water); knead everything adding water until you obtain a very fluid batter. Literally “slap” it for a long time. Subsequently leave the mixture to rise for about two hours in the warmth wrapping the bowl with a woollen cover.
When the mixture rises, prepare a frying pan with warm oil and bring it to a boil. With a spoon take the mixture closing it with your hands until you obtain little balls and fry them little by little with hot oil. Once swelled, lay them down on a tray with a very absorbent paper and dress them as you like. The original Pettole are strained with cooked wine of figs (immersing them for some minutes).
Cartellate (fried sweet pasta stripes)
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of white flour
- 200 gr of dry white
- Cooked wine of figs and honey
- Dry cinnamon and icing sugar
- 400 gr of extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 gr di salt
- Lukewarm water
Preparation:
Arrange flour on the table and make a hole in the middle, where, first of all, put warmed wine and oil. In a separate terrine melt a salt pinch in 50 cl of lukewarm water (which will be used to knead all the mixture so that it results neither too hard nor too soft).
Take little by little small pieces of dough which will be stretched with the rolling pin; cut some stripes with a 3-4 cm length cog. Fold the stripes in half and unite them with your fingers with a distance of 3 cm between the two sides of the stripe so creating some little basins. Roll the stripes up shaping a spiral and making them dry and settle for at least 6 hours. Fry the Cartellate in abundant boiling oil. Immerse them into the cooked wine of figs and honey and devour with cinnamon and icing sugar.
Castagnelle (chestnuts-shaped sweets)
Ingredients:
- 500 gr of almonds
- 500 gr of flour
- 500 gr of sugar
- 15 gr di ammonia
- 1 lemon (only the yellow peel)
- Carnation essence
- Cinnamon
- Bitter cocoa, as much as it is enough
Preparation:
Peel, toast and mince the almonds. Mix them with flour, sugar, carnation essence, grated lemon peel and cinnamon. Knead everything with a bit of water (where ammonia will be dissolved). Be careful, because the dough must result pretty hard.
With it, create some sausages which then will be cut into pieces as big as a nut. Arrange the sweets into a baking tin and bake them.
In a separate terrine melt cocoa with a bit of sugar and, when they are cooked, immerse little by little the Castagnelle in the chocolate mixture. After having immersed them, leave them to dry.
Alomnds sweets
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of almonds fruit
- 1 kg of sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 lemon
- Coffee beans
- Candied fruit
Preparation:
Bring to a boil a saucepan containing water, where you will add the almonds. After 5 minutes strain and peel them. Once finished, leave them to dry. After this stage, toast them in oven for about 20 minutes. Once made them cold, mince them and mix them with sugar.
Subsequently add the egg whites and amalgamate everything until you obtain a soft dough. Finally add a minced lemon peel. Full a pastry chef’s bag with a milled nozzle and shape, on a plate, some rose shaped moulds. Cook everything on a low heat.
Zeppole di San Giuseppe – March 19th (San Giuseppe’s Zeppole donuts)
Ingredients:
- 500 gr of flour
- 10 entire eggs
- 100 gr of butter
- 500 cl of water
Preparation:
Pour water, butter and a salt pinch in a casserole and leave water to boil; when it boils, put flour inside with just one operation, rapidly mixing with a wooden spoon until the mixture breaks away from the sides of the container (about 10 minutes). Make dough cold and add yolks and whites one by one continuing to mix. Then pour the mixture in a pastry chef’s syringe with a large star tube and shape some donuts with a hole in the middle. Fry them one by one in hot extra-virgin olive oil turning the Zeppole three or four times so that you have a uniform cooking (they are cooked when they brown and swell). Stretch them on a kitchen paper so that oil in excess is absorbed. It is possible to garnish them with confectioner’s custard and two black cherries in syrup arranged at opposite points or with a teaspoon of black cherries jam. Sprinkle icing sugar on it and, if you like, cinnamon too. It is also possible to bake Zeppole (cooking them at 190° until they brown).Bocconotti sweets
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of almonds
- 1 lemon (just the yellow part)
- 800 gr of sugar
- 1 spoon of powdered cinnamon
- 7 eggs
- 600 gr of pastry
- 1 shot glass ( Limoncello)
- Aluminium small baskets
Preparation:
Take the almonds and bring them to a boil for about 20 minutes. Subsequently peel and dry them with a cloth. Then mince them until the dough becomes homogeneous.
In a separate saucepan, amalgamate sugar with a glass of water leaving it to melt on a low heat and always mix until you obtain an homogeneous mixture. Once ready, make everything cold always continuing to amalgamate. Add almonds, yolks and the other ingredients to the mixture. Whip the egg whites and put them into the dough. So you obtain “pasta reale” (“royal pasta”), which is an almonds’ dough.
Take pastry and stretch it, cutting disks with a diameter of 10 cm. Oil the aluminium baskets and put them inside the pastry disks filling a half of it with pasta reale. Arrange the baskets into a pan and bake them at 200° for about 30 minutes. Then make the Bocconotti cold and take them out of the baskets. Leave them to stand for some hours, soaking the top part with liqueur (San Marzano or other) and dust icing sugar (as you like).
Mostaccioli biscuits
Ingredients for the dough:
- 1 kg of flour
- 400 gr of toasted and minced almonds
- 1 lt of cooked wine of figs
- 500 gr of sugar
- 100 gr of lard
- 1 small bag of yeast
Ingredients for icing:
- 100 gr of dark chocolate
- 200 gr of sugar
- 100 gr of water
Preparation:
Unite all the ingredients (except for cooked wine) and energetically mix. Knead and add the cooked wine until the mixture absorb it (do not overcome the quantity of 1 lt). With the obtained dough you create irregular shapes, then cook them on a low heat.
Melt chocolate in water, later adding sugar and bring everything slowly to a boil often turning it with a cookware until cooking is finished. Once warmed, stretch it with a brush on the still cooked Mostaccioli.
Chiacchiere di Carnevale (Carnival’s Chiacchiere sweet pasta)
Ingredients:
- 400 gr of “00” flour
- 25 gr of icing sugar
- 50 gr of butter
- 2 entire eggs
- 2 eggs yolks
- 1 Marsala liqueur’s glass
- 1 salt pinch
Preparation:
On a hard counter top, form a well with sieved flour, adding little by little all the other ingredients. Amalgamate everything until you obtain a smooth and solid dough. Leave it to stand for about 10 minutes.Stretch the dough until you obtain a very thin sheet of pastry and, with a cog, cut different shapes.
Fry the mixture in boiling oil for a few minutes. Let Chiacchiere drip on a kitchen blotting paper and sprinkle icing sugar on them.