Cannoli Siciliani
The crown jewel of Sicilian pastry. Crispy fried shells filled with sweetened sheep ricotta, candied orange, and dark chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 250g00 flour
- 500gsheep milk ricotta
- 150gicing sugar
- 50gcandied orange peel
- 80gdark chocolate chips
- 30mlMarsala wine
- 1egg white for sealing
- Lardfor frying
Method
Make dough with flour, sugar, lard, Marsala. Rest 1 hour wrapped in cling film.
Roll thin, cut circles, wrap around cannoli tubes, seal edges with egg white.
Fry at 190°C until blistered and golden. Cool before removing tubes.
Whip ricotta with sifted icing sugar until silky smooth.
Pipe filling into shells just before serving. Dip ends in chocolate and candied peel.
Frequently asked
What is the filling in a Sicilian cannoli?
Sheep's-milk ricotta, drained overnight and sweetened with icing sugar, usually with candied peel or chocolate. It is never cream. Ricotta that has not been drained will weep and turn the shell soft within minutes.
Why do cannoli shells go soggy?
Because they were filled too early. A cannolo is filled to order, at the moment it is served — in Sicily filling them in advance is treated as ruining them. Shells keep for days in an airtight tin; filled ones last about ten minutes.
What makes cannoli shells bubble?
A little wine or vinegar in the dough, rolled thin, and hot oil. The acidity and the steam lift the surface into blisters as it fries. A shell that comes out flat and smooth was rolled too thick or fried too cool.
Learn to make Cannoli Siciliani with Chef Gabriele
A recipe gets you most of the way there. The rest is in the hands — how the dough should feel, when to stop working it, what the pan should sound like. Chef Gabriele teaches the Sicilian pastry classin Leichhardt, Sydney's Little Italy, in small groups where everyone cooks.
