Cartellate · Cartellate Pugliesi
Puglia · dolce · serves 12 · 180 min total · hard
The Christmas dolce of Bari and the Terra di Bari — said to mirror the halo of the baby Jesus, or the crown of thorns, depending on the village. The shape demands an old hand; nonne in Altamura still pinch them at speed, gossiping over the kitchen table the week before Christmas. Vincotto di fichi — fig must reduced to syrup — is the proper dressing; honey is acceptable; sugar syrup is heresy.
Ingredients
- 500 g 00 flour
- 150 ml dry white wine, warmed
- 80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 1 L olive oil for frying
- 400 ml vincotto di fichi or mosto cotto
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp coloured sugar nonpareils (optional)
Method
- Combine flour, salt, warm wine, olive oil. Knead 10 minutes to a smooth, firm dough — drier than pasta dough. Rest covered 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough as thin as possible — ideally with a pasta machine to setting 6 or 7 (1 mm). The thinner the sheet, the lighter the cartellata.
- Cut the sheet into long strips, 4 cm wide. Crimp one long edge with a fluted cutter or pasta wheel.
- Take a strip. Pinch the two long sides together at intervals of 2 cm to form a chain of little pockets — like a row of sealed pouches along the strip.
- Curl the strip into a flat spiral on the work surface, sealing the pinches between turns. Each cartellata is a rose-shape with open petals on top. Set on a cloth and leave to dry, uncovered, at room temperature for at least 4 hours — overnight is better. The drying is essential or they crack in the oil.
- Heat olive oil to 165°C. Fry the roses one or two at a time, spooning hot oil over the top until pale gold and crisp. Drain.
- Warm the vincotto with the cinnamon in a wide pan. When syrupy and just bubbling at the edges, slip in each rose, baste with the syrup so the open pockets fill, then lift onto a serving plate.
- Scatter with coloured sprinkles if you like (the Bari Vecchia bakeries do). Eat cold.