Cicerchiata · Cicerchiata Molisana
Molise · dolce · serves 10 · 120 min total · medium
The Carnival dolce of the Apennine spine — shared between Molise, Abruzzo and the inner Marche but lived in differently in each. In Molise it is made in big family batches the morning of martedì grasso, mounded into a low ring on the centre of the table. The name comes from cicerchia, the chickpea-like grass-pea once grown across the region. The honey must be local mountain honey: chestnut or wildflower from the Mainarde.
Ingredients
- 500 g 00 flour
- 4 eggs eggs
- 50 g sugar
- 40 ml olive oil
- 30 ml anisette liqueur (or grappa)
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 1 L oil for frying
- 400 g local mountain honey
- 1 orange orange zest
- 80 g toasted almonds, chopped
- 60 g diced candied orange and citron
- 2 tbsp coloured sugar nonpareils
Method
- Pile flour with sugar, salt, lemon zest. Make a well, add eggs, olive oil, anisette. Bring together and knead 8 minutes to a firm, smooth dough. Rest 30 minutes covered.
- Take pieces of dough and roll into long thin ropes the thickness of a pencil. Cut into pellets the size of a chickpea (cicerchia — the bean that gives the dolce its name).
- Heat oil to 170°C. Fry the pellets in batches, swirling, for about 90 seconds until pale gold and puffed. Drain on paper.
- In a wide pan, warm the honey with the orange zest until just liquid and a touch syrupy — do not boil hard, it will harden.
- Off the heat, tip in the fried pellets, toasted almonds and candied fruit. Fold gently with a wooden spoon until every pellet is glazed.
- Wet your hands in cold water. Working fast, mound the warm cicerchiata onto a serving plate in the shape of a wreath (a low ring with a hole in the middle).
- While still warm, scatter the coloured sprinkles over the top so they stick.
- Set 2 hours to firm up. Serve in shards broken off the ring — eaten with the fingers.