Cannoli with homemade ricotta

June 6, 2020meza-admin

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 16 cannoli shells

How often do you find yourself looking for the best recipe to a traditional Italian meal and you can’t find two recipes that match together. Most often leaving you thinking well, what the hell is the right recipe anyways. I love that about Italian food. The recipe just gives you a heads up and guidelines to what the finished result should look like, and all the rest is up to you to improvise. Of course, if you don’t post it online and be greeted with temperamental locals to whose food you’re replicating, but that’s all the beauty of it.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli!

As they leave, Peter Clemenza delivers one of the most quoted lines in movie history. Critics have long debated the meaning of “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”. Some say it refers to keeping violence and negativity in the past — take only the “sweet” things with you into the future. And really I couldn’t help but agree more to the background of the story. But to take this sweet pastry delight into the future you’re going to need the recipe, so let’s get down to business.

Cannoli shells:

Wandering the internet for the most traditional cannoli recipe ever might drive you slightly mad. There is really so many different ones but they all go down on the same scheme. So, basically the shell is made of a sweetened dough enriched with fat (lard/butter) and acidity (most commonly marsala wine/vinegar). The dough is then submerged into very hot lard or oil for very short time.

Before we continue to the recipe.

I need to inform you that cannoli shells are inevitable to making cannoli. You should be able to find them in any decent equipped pastry store. Besides the shells you’ll need some kind of round 9-11 cm cutter and a rolling pin or pasta machine for rolling out the dough.

Cannoli filling:

Cannoli are traditionally filled with sugar enriched ricotta cheese. They are then typically dipped into crushed nuts or candied fruits on both end. Today, cannoli are filled with a much wider variety of creams from lemon curds, creme patissiere, chocolate, etc. I kind of like the old school ricotta filling the most. The light and creamy texture really complements the rough crusty shell. If you wish to make your own ricotta cheese which I do encourage you to here’s the full recipe to that: http://meza-blog.com/recipe/ricotta/

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Cannoli with homemade ricotta

  • Prep time: 2 hours
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes
  • Serves: 16 cannoli shells

How often do you find yourself looking for the best recipe to a traditional Italian meal and you can't find two recipes that match together. Most often leaving you thinking well, what the hell is the right recipe anyways. I love that about Italian food. The recipe just gives you a heads up and guidelines to what the finished result should look like, and all the rest is up to you to improvise. Of course, if you don't post it online and be greeted with temperamental locals to whose food you're replicating, but that's all the beauty of it.

Ingredients

For the shells

  • 150 gr 00 flour
  • 35 gr butter, (or lard traditionally)
  • 1 tablespoon apple vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons white wine
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 10 gr granulated sugar
  • 1 liter frying oil
  • 1 egg for egwash
  • cannoli molds, or any 2-4 cm diameter stainless steel pipe

For the filling

  • 150 gr ricotta
  • 35 gr powdered sugar
  • crushed pistachios , for garnish
  • powdered sugar , for garnish

Method

To make the shells:

  • 1)

    Before you start making your dough, melt the butter. Now traditionally speaking, you should use lard for making cannoli, and it really does give it that beautiful after taste the butter will not replicate. All though for personal reasons I ended up using butter which is also very tasty.

  • 2)

    Now combine all of your ingredients in a bowl and start mixing until resembling a dough.

  • 3)

    Once dough starts to form, transfer to a worksurface and kneed for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. The dough should not stick to your hands or to the work surface.

  • 4)

    Now wrap your dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least and hour.

  • 5)

    Once chilled, place on a dusted work surface and roll using a rolling pin or pasta machine to about 1/4 cm thick. (It needs to be really really thin, something like tagliatelle pasta thickness).

  • 6)

    While you’re rolling the dough, take a heavy bottom sauce pan or small pot and pour in about 1L of frying oil. Place on medium heat and bring to about 160-180*C.

  • 7)

    Now cut 8-10 cm circles using a pastry cutter or simply a mug or something.

  • 8)

    Wrap the dough around your cannoli molds and give a little egg wash at the top where the ends overlap. Lightly pinch the ends to make sure they don’t unwrap.

  • 9)

    Place inside your pre heated oil and fry until golden brown. I suggest using tongs to ensure even cooking and placing maximum 3 cannoli at a time. They take only seconds to cook through.

  • 10)

    Place over a paper towel to drain excess oil. (they keep unfilled for up to a month so you can make them ahead of time.)

For the filling:

  • 1)

    Combine ricotta cheese with powdered sugar and beat lightly with a whisk until creamy.

  • 2)

    Place inside a piping bag and fill just before serving

  • 3)

    I garnished mine with crushed pistachios but you can do any sort of dried fruit, almonds, figs, etc. etc.

Nutrition

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