February in Italy is Carnival time! It is a popular celebration where you are allowed some transgression: you can parade wearing grotesque masks but also incredibly beautiful costumes, like the ones you see during the famous Carnival of Venice. It is a time for satire, mockery and indulgence.
Speaking about indulgence, I would like to show you how to prepare two delicious sweet treats that are typically made at this time of the year: frittelle and crostoli.
Frittelle recipe (serves 4):
- 1.6 cups (200g) all-purpose flour
- 4.2 fl oz (125ml) water
- 4.2 fl oz (125ml) milk
- 0.25 cups (50g) sugar
- 1 egg
- zest of a lemon
- 1.3 tsp (6g) fresh brewer’s yeast
- 0.7 cups (100g) raisins
- sunflower oil, enough for frying
- sugar, to taste for sprinkling
Directions:
Frittelle is super easy to make! First of all, gently heat up the milk, adding the sugar and the yeast previously made into crumbles. Stir until the ingredients are dissolved. Turn off the heat and put it aside for now.
In a bowl, add your flour, zest of a lemon, the egg and stir. Then pour in the water at room temperature and keep stirring. Finally, it is time to add the milk.
- Now, mix with the help of a spoon or a hand whisk to combine all the ingredients together, making sure there are no lumps. Last but not least, add your raisins and mix one last time.
Cover the dough with a dish towel and let it rest at room temperature for 1 1⁄2 hour or until you can see little bubbles on the surface.
Heat up your oil in a pan and, as soon as it has reached the right temperature, add your frittelle with the help of two spoons, so that you can give them their typical round shape. Fry and turn your frittelle over until they are golden brown.
Once ready, take them out of the pan and let them rest on some paper towel so that it can absorb the excess oil.
Now, you can sprinkle some sugar on top as a final decoration and...BUON APPETITO!
Crostoli recipe (serves 6-8):
- 4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour
- 0.2 cups (40g) sugar
- 0.7 sticks (80g) butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 fl oz (30ml) of grappa, or rum, or limoncello
- zest of a lemon
- a pinch of salt
- milk (if needed)
- icing sugar, to taste for sprinkling
- sunflower oil, enough for frying
You will need a rolling pin, a pasta machine and a pastry wheel to roll out and cut the pastry sheets. A planetary mixer is optional, you can replace it with some elbow grease!
Directions:
In a bowl, add your flour, sugar, eggs, grappa, zest of a lemon, a pinch of salt and your softened butter - already cut into smaller pieces. Knead everything together by hand or with the help of a planetary mixer. If necessary, you can add some milk at room temperature to adjust the consistency of your dough: it needs to be smooth and soft. Make a ball and pack it into some plastic wrap. Let your dough rest at room temperature for half an hour.
Now, take out some of your dough, making sure that you wrap again the rest of it so that it does not dry up. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin (or your hands!) and then, with the help of your pasta machine, roll the dough. Repeat this last step, until you get a very thin sheet.
Note: if you don’t have a pasta machine, you could work on a smaller piece of dough at a time and roll it out on a floured working top with the help of a rolling pin. Make sure you have a very thin and elastic sheet of dough in the end.
Cut the sheet in rectangles using a pastry wheel with serrated edges. Then make a vertical cut in the middle of each rectangle without reaching the edges. Repeat the above steps for the remaining dough.
Now, you are ready to fry! In a pan with hot sunflower oil, put a small number of crostoli at a time, turning them over frequently. Then, take them out as soon as they are golden and place them onto some paper towel to absorb the oil in excess.
- Sprinkle some icing sugar on top of your crostoli and...you are ready for your super sexy Carnevale!
Angelo Coassin
Angelo Coassin is an Italian professional dancer, actor, passionate home cook, and creator of the page @cookingwithbello. In June 2021, Angelo launched his first cookbook “Bello’s Sexy Pasta”, a collection of his most delicious and authentic pasta recipes.
