Pignolata Glassata · Pignolata Messinese (variante calabrese)
Calabria · dolce · serves 8 · 90 min total · medium
Born in Messina but adopted across the Strait, the Calabrian version is fluffier and more cocoa-forward. The two-tone glaze is said to mirror Mount Etna — snow on top, magma on the flank — and it appears on every pasticceria counter from Reggio Calabria to Catanzaro for Christmas and Carnival.
Ingredients
- 400 g 00 flour
- 4 eggs eggs
- 40 g lard or butter
- 300 g sugar
- 40 g unsweetened cocoa
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 150 g icing sugar
- 1 white egg whites
- 1 L oil for frying
Method
- Pile flour with eggs, soft lard, lemon zest. Knead 10 minutes to a firm, smooth dough. Rest 30 minutes covered.
- Roll out small ropes the thickness of a pencil. Cut into 1 cm pellets — these are the "pine nuts" (pignoli) of the name.
- Heat oil to 170°C. Fry the pellets in batches until pale gold and puffed, 90 seconds each. Drain on paper.
- White glaze: whisk icing sugar with one egg white and a little lemon juice until you have a thick pourable icing.
- Chocolate glaze: melt sugar with 3 tbsp water until syrupy, off heat stir in the cocoa to a glossy paste.
- Divide the fried pellets in two heaps. Dress one heap with the white glaze, the other with the chocolate.
- Mound the two heaps alternately on a serving plate to form a pyramid — half white, half dark, like the snowy peak and lava cone of Etna.