Cannolo, the Sicilian dessert par excellence...
Although it is found in all Sicilian pastry shops throughout the year, actually, this crumbly tube filled with ricotta cream was born as a typical dessert of the carnival period. In fact, this is the time of year in which even today, in the villages of the Sicilian hinterland, many women gather to prepare these sweet delicacies and neighbors, friends and relatives get to work together... Everyone has his own task: there are those who prepare the ingredients, there are those who roll out the dough with the old grandmother’s machine, there are those who close the dough around the river "cane" (cylindrical tool in which you roll up the dough to shape the waffle once fried)and some people fry. And this is how that kitchen in a short time becomes a real pastry workshop.
Between a chat and the other, they prepare hundreds of cannoli to share among the various families... each fills them as he wants... the most accredited historical version is the one that provides a cream of sheep ricotta, a recipe of Arab origin, they were in fact to mix the ricotta cheese together with sugar, many prefer instead a filling with simple cream of milk and lemon zest... these are the two classic versions... Today, however, you can find various reinterpretations of the cannoli, with pistachio cream and grains or chocolate and candied fruit...
There are various debates on the place of origin of the cannoli, it seems that it was invented by the nuns inside a convent in Caltanissetta as a sweet carnival joke addressed to someone.
Today, although we can enjoy them anywhere on the island,
Among the Sicilian places particularly famous for this specialty we certainly find Piana degli Albanesi in the province of Palermo, and Dattilo in the province of Trapani. A real treat for the palate.
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