Sfogliatella Riccia · Sfogliatella Riccia Napoletana
Campania · dolce · serves 12 · 360 min total · hard
Born in the 17th century at the Convent of Santa Rosa on the Amalfi Coast, where a nun made the first one with leftover semolina, dried fruit and an excess of lard. Carried to Naples in 1818 by the innkeeper Pasquale Pintauro, who refined the layered shell into the riccia we know. Pintauro's bakery on Via Toledo still exists; the queue forms at 6 a.m.
Ingredients
- 500 g 00 flour (strong)
- 20 g honey
- 8 g salt
- 200 ml cold water
- 300 g strutto (lard) at room temperature
- 120 g fine semolina
- 250 ml milk
- 250 ml water for filling
- 300 g sheep's-milk ricotta, well drained
- 200 g sugar for filling
- 1 egg egg
- 1 yolk egg yolk
- 80 g candied orange peel, finely diced
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
Method
- Dough: combine flour, salt, honey, cold water. Knead 12 minutes to a very firm, dry, smooth dough — it should be tough. Wrap, rest 2 hours minimum (ideally overnight).
- Divide the dough in 4. Pass each piece through a pasta machine, gradually thinning down to the thinnest setting (transparent like phyllo). Lay strips on a cloth.
- Brush the first long strip thickly with soft lard. Lay the next strip on top, brush. Continue until all strips form a single long sheet, glued by the lard layers.
- From one short end, roll the layered sheet tightly into a long cylinder (like a Swiss roll). Wrap and freeze 1 hour to firm.
- Filling: in a saucepan, bring milk and water to a simmer. Rain in the semolina, whisking, and cook to a thick polenta-like cream — 4 minutes. Cool.
- Beat ricotta with sugar until silky. Beat in the cooled semolina, then egg, yolk, candied orange, cinnamon and vanilla. The filling should be firm-piping.
- Slice the dough cylinder into 1.5 cm discs. With your thumbs, push the centre of each disc outward, opening up the layers into a cone shape — like a small turban.
- Pipe filling into each cone. Pinch the opening shut into the classic clam shape.
- Bake at 220°C (430°F) for 22–25 minutes — the layered shell must turn crisp and bronzed, fanning out like a seashell. Dust with icing sugar.
- Eat warm with a strong espresso. The shell shatters; the filling steams.