THE Sicilian cannoli they are probably the best known Italian desserts in the world together with tiramisu. Light, crumbly, crunchy and sweet, cannoli are the very soul of Sicilian culinary culture and can tell the story of the island in just a few bites. The fried cannoli dough made with flour, wine, lard and coffee, with the soft and creamy sheep ricotta filling fresh and sugar, enriched with simple drops of dark chocolate, immediately bring back to the warmth of Sicily. Each family jealously handed down their recipe and there are many variations in the ingredients of the dough and filling. We offer you a homemade and traditional one, practically infallible!

Preparation

1

In a bowl pour flour, coffee, lard and red wine. Mix initially with a spatula.

2

Once well mixed, transfer everything onto a lightly floured surface and work well until a smooth and homogeneous dough is formed. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

3

Meanwhile prepare the cream for the filling. In a bowl, mix the ricotta with a whisk until smooth. Then add the sugar and mix well.

4

Also add the dark chocolate chips, mix, then cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

5

After the dough has rested for some time, pour the oil for frying into a pan with fairly high edges and bring it over the heat, over low heat. Let it heat up to 170°, helping you to measure with a cooking thermometer.

6

While the oil reaches temperature, roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 3 mm.

7

With a pastry cutter with a diameter of 10 cm, make circles. Alternatively you can cut out squares measuring 10×10 cm.

8

Wrap the cannoli cylinders with each disk of dough. If you don’t have cannoli cylinders, you can make similar ones using aluminum foil.

9

Wet the sealing edge of the dough with a little egg white, lightly brushing the edge.

10

Place a cannoli on a slotted spoon and immerse it in the oil at room temperature.

11

Fry for about 1 minute, until the pastry is lightly browned. Be careful not to burn the cannoli. Then drain on absorbent paper. Continue in the same way for all the cannoli and remove the cylinders only when they are warm.

12

As soon as they are completely cold, fill them with the ricotta, using a sac-à-few.

13

Decorate the ends of the cannoli with candied cherries, orange peel and chopped pistachios. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar or vanilla.

14

Serve.

Advice and tips

We advise you to fill the cannoli just before serving them. In this way the wafer will remain crunchy.

You can replace the dark chocolate drops in the filling with white or milk chocolate drops, or with pieces of candied fruit.

In pastry shops you might see cannoli with melted chocolate brushed inside. It’s actually a gimmick to be able to them fill first and prevent them from getting wet with stuffing, so you can sell in quantity. However, the expedient is very tasty and, if you want, you can replicate it at home by brushing melted chocolate inside the cannoli and waiting for it to solidify.

The cannoli dough it has a very hard textureso don’t worry if your dough turns out to be quite solid.

As an alternative to the rolling pin, you can use the machine to roll out the dough, which in the case of a particularly hard dough can help in the cannoli creation phase.

You can replace the red wine with dry white wine, Marsala or another liqueur wine.

storage

The cannoli without filling should be kept in a cool, dry place for 5 dayscovered with a clean tea towel. Once filled, they must be eaten at the moment. Ricotta can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

They cannot be frozen.

History

The origins of the cannoli are shrouded in mystery. It seems to be an ancient dessert, even mentioned by Cicero in 70 BC; most likely it was an idea that came during the Arab domination, when the Saracens thought of mixing ricotta and sugar. Other hypotheses say that they were the invention of a cloistered monastery and Cajetan Basilehistorian and journalist, affirms instead that the cannoli was born on the occasion of the Carnival as a joke, having to be a cake with a phallic shape.