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Ciao amici!
The holiday season is upon us. We hope that you all have a wonderful time celebrating your traditions with family and friends. During the Christmas season our family always had special dinners and desserts. This newsletter features a family favorite dessert that our grandmother made every year.
Buon natale! Buon appetito!
Gina and Mary
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Italian Christmas delight: Chestnut Panzerotti
Some of the most joyous things of the Italian table are the desserts, breads and fried pastries that change according to the seasons and the holiday. Winter in general brings more fried goodies to celebrate religious holidays, like fried rice balls for the feast of St. Joseph's on March 19th or fried pastry strips for Carnivale before Lent starts. But Christmas in particular showcases many fried and baked delicacies that are only made at this special time of year.
Panettone has become symbolic of the Italian Christmas celebration, golden elastic bread studded with raisins. Originally from Milan, panettone is now widely found not only all over Italy but also throughout the US. Even small grocery stores and specialty shops, from Italian grocers to World Market to your local grocery stores: if you want a good panettone for the holidays, it is easy to procure. From Verona comes pandoro. Less well known, it's a delicate, molded cake, 10 inches high and sprinkled with rumpowered sugar.
The baked cakes are delicious, but there is a variety of wonderful fried pastries in Italy that are traditional and vary with the region. Struffoli, those little balls of fried dough piled high and drizzled with honey and colored sprinkles; or stracci, thin strips of dough that are cut with a zigzag edge and sprinkled with powered sugar; or frittelle, rounds of bread dough puffed up in hot oil and dredged with granulated sugar.
My favorite though is the panzerotti that my grandma used to make every year for Christmas Eve. Similar to a ravioli, panzerotti are from southern Italy and can be stuffed with either savory or sweet. At Christmas they are stuffed with a puree of chestnut, cocoa and liquor, fried and then sprinkled with powdered sugar or rolled in granulated sugar. They can be made with sweet pasta dough, which is crispy, or a bread dough, which results in a chewy dough. Either way they're delicious and elegant.
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Panzerotti (fried chestnut pastries)
Dough:
1 package dry yeast, or � cake yeast
1 � cups warm water
1 teas salt
3-4 cups flour
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the center and add the water, stirring with a fork and incorporating the flour in a little at a time until the mixture forms a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot to rise.
Filling:
The base of the filling is chestnut, but if my grandmother couldn't get enough or they were too expensive she mixed them with ceci, or chickpeas. You can either get fresh chestnuts and boil and peel them, or canned (or in a jar) chestnuts, which definitely cuts down on time. Make sure there is no sugar, just chestnut.
The liquor that's added is just enough to help the mix puree smoothly into a paste and can be a combination of anything you have, some sweet, some not.
3 cups chestnut meat
1 cup dark cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/8 teas cloves
� teas cinnamon
Zest from one orange
Liquors: Cointreau or triple sec, brandy, amaretto, anisette, Strega, rum
Take a small amount of the dough and roll it onto a floured surface. Cut 3 inch rounds with a cookie cutter, moisten the edges and place a large spoonful of the filling inside. Fold the panzerotti into a half moon shape and firmly secure the edges with the tines of a fork. Heat peanut oil to 350 degrees on a candy thermometer and fry the panzerotti in batches. Drain on paper towels. Dip in sugar and eat hot or at room temperature.
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