Cassatelle di Ricotta · Cassatelle Trapanesi
Sicily · dolce · serves 20 · 150 min total · medium
The fried pastry-cousin of cannoli from western Sicily — Trapani, Erice, Alcamo. Smaller, half-moon-shaped, plumper. Tradition: made for Easter Monday's pasquetta picnics in the countryside, eaten on the way back from the long walk to the chapels. The Marsala in the dough is non-negotiable in Trapani; everywhere else it's white wine.
Ingredients
- 500 g 00 flour
- 40 g sugar
- 60 g lard or olive oil
- 150 ml sweet Marsala (or dry white wine)
- 1 egg egg
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 600 g fresh sheep's-milk ricotta, drained 12 h
- 180 g icing sugar
- 80 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 L oil for frying
- 4 tbsp icing sugar for dusting
Method
- Dough: combine flour with sugar and salt. Rub in the lard. Add Marsala and the egg. Knead 10 minutes to a smooth firm dough. Wrap, rest 1 hour.
- Filling: whisk drained ricotta with icing sugar until silky. Fold in finely chopped chocolate and cinnamon. Chill 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough as thin as you can — 2 mm. Cut discs of 9 cm across.
- Place a generous teaspoon of ricotta filling on each disc. Fold over into a half-moon, press the air out, seal the edges by crimping with a fork or fluted cutter.
- Heat oil to 170°C. Fry the cassatelle in batches, turning once, until pale gold and lightly bubbled — about 2 minutes total. Lift onto paper.
- Dust thickly with icing sugar while still hot, so it melts in a little.
- Eat warm — the filling is still molten. The Trapanese say: a cold cassatella is a wasted cassatella.