Panzerotti Pugliesi

Small filled dough pockets deep fried, not baked like a calzone.

Not vegetarian — contains mozzarella whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 280 ml warm water
• 7 g fresh yeast
• 40 ml olive oil
• 10 g salt
• 300 g mozzarella, diced and drained overnight
• 300 g passata, cooked down thick
• oregano
• 1 litre sunflower oil, for deep frying, which is poured off

Method

1. Make a soft dough and prove it 2 hours until doubled.
2. DRAIN THE MOZZARELLA OVERNIGHT and reduce the passata until it mounds on a spoon. Both are mostly water, and water inside a sealed pocket in hot oil turns to steam and bursts it.
3. Divide into eight and roll each to a 16 cm disc.
4. Put filling on one half, leaving a 2 cm border, fold over, and SEAL THE EDGE BY PRESSING AND THEN FOLDING IT BACK ON ITSELF in a rolled hem. A fork crimp is not enough for frying.
5. Prove the sealed pockets 30 minutes.
6. DEEP FRY at 175C, two at a time, 3 minutes, turning once. THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT A PANZEROTTO: a calzone of the same shape and filling is BAKED, and the two are different foods — frying blisters the outside and steams the inside at once.
7. Drain on a rack and eat within minutes. The filling is molten, so warn whoever is eating. Pour the 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