Cannoli Siciliani
Crisp fried pastry tubes filled with sweetened, drained ricotta, the ends dipped in chopped pistachio. Fill them just before serving, not before.
- prep
- 1 h
- cook
- 20 min
- total
- 1 h 20 min
- serves
- 12
- level
- hard
Cannoli shells are a wine-and-flour dough rolled thin, wrapped around metal tubes, and deep-fried until they blister into a crisp, bubbled shell, which is traditionally cracked a little, not slick. The filling is sheep's milk ricotta, drained of its whey for hours so it stays thick, sweetened and sometimes studded with chocolate chips or candied citrus.
The one rule that actually matters: fill the shells close to serving. Ricotta filling turns a crisp shell soggy within an hour, which is why good pastry shops fill cannoli to order.
Cannoli Siciliani is one of the twenty most famous Italian foods.
method
Make the dough: pulse the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter together, then work in the Marsala and vinegar until a firm, smooth dough forms. Rest it, wrapped, for 1 hour.
Drain the ricotta overnight in a sieve lined with cheesecloth to remove excess whey.
Roll the dough very thin and cut into circles about 10cm across. Wrap each around an oiled metal cannoli tube, sealing the overlap with a dab of beaten egg.
Heat the oil to 180°C (350°F). Fry the tubes a few at a time until deep golden and blistered, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, and once cool enough to handle, slide the shells off the tubes.
Beat the drained ricotta with powdered sugar until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips if using.
Pipe the ricotta filling into both ends of each shell just before serving, and dip the exposed filling ends in chopped pistachio.
Dust with powdered sugar and serve within the hour.
chef's tips
- Fill them as close to serving as possible; this is not a make-ahead dessert once filled.
- Metal cannoli tubes are worth owning if you plan to make these more than once; wooden dowels work in a pinch.
- Properly drained ricotta, overnight if possible, is what keeps the filling thick instead of runny.