Cannoli

Shells fried round metal tubes and filled only at the moment of serving.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lard, ricotta whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

Shells

• 300 g plain flour
• 30 g caster sugar
• 30 g lard
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 100 ml marsala
• 1 egg white, for sealing
• 1 litre sunflower oil, for deep frying, which is poured off

Filling

• 700 g sheep's ricotta, drained 24 hours
• 180 g icing sugar
• 80 g candied peel, chopped
• 60 g dark chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Work the flour, sugar, lard, cocoa and marsala into a firm dough and rest it 1 hour. The marsala makes it blister in the oil.
2. Drain the ricotta in a cloth for 24 HOURS, weighted. Then beat it with the icing sugar and fold in the peel and chocolate. A wet ricotta will turn the shell to paper in minutes.
3. Roll the dough almost transparent and cut 10 cm ovals.
4. Wrap each round an oiled metal tube, overlapping the ends, and seal the overlap with egg white. Seal it properly or it unrolls in the oil.
5. Fry at 180C for 2 minutes until blistered and deep brown. Slide the tubes out while hot, using a cloth.
6. Cool the shells completely. They keep a week in a tin.
7. FILL THEM AS THEY GO TO THE TABLE AND NOT BEFORE. A filled cannolo is soft within twenty minutes; this is the whole reason they are sold filled to order.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes