Ciarduna

A fried pastry shell piped full of ricotta only when it is about to be eaten.

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

Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour
• 50 g lard
• 30 g caster sugar
• 100 ml dry white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 600 g sheep's ricotta, drained 24 hours
• 180 g icing sugar
• 60 g pistachios, chopped
• 1 litre sunflower oil, for deep frying, which is poured off

Method

1. Rub the lard into the flour, sugar and salt, add the wine, and knead to a firm dough. Rest it an hour.
2. Roll it as thin as you can, almost translucent, and cut discs. Wrap each round an oiled metal tube.
3. Fry at 180C for 90 seconds until blistered and deep gold. Slide them off the tubes while warm.
4. Beat the drained ricotta with the icing sugar and pass it through a sieve.
5. FILL THEM AT THE LAST MOMENT, not in advance. The shell goes soft within twenty minutes of meeting the ricotta, and the contrast between brittle shell and cold cream is the only thing this sweet is about.
6. Dip the ends in chopped pistachios and serve immediately.
7. Keep unfilled shells in a tin for a week and pipe to order. Pour the frying oil off once cooled.

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