His Majesty the Cannolo

Partly out of gallantry, we opened this tasty tour of the universe of Sicilian sweets with her: Queen Cassata… And what more worthy successor and/or companion could we now elect than HIM, emblem of Sicilian masculinity, inexhaustible subject of bold and barely veiled metaphors, but above all the reigning Prince of every sweet tooth… he, the most virile

Cannolo!

Classic with ricotta or with chocolate, small or large, Sicilian cannoli cannot do without their crisp fried pastry shell, which contrasts with the softness of a light, sweet filling. Then came caramelised versions, pistachio versions and now even deconstructed ones (who knows what Freud would make of that?). Besides its irresistible taste and crunch, only one certainty remains:

Ognu cannolu è scettru d'ogni Re. (Every cannolo is the sceptre of every king.)

Dulcis in fundo: the history

The story – or legend – of the cannolo, much like its original essence, blurs the lines between the sacred and the profane, the serious and the playful…

It is said that it was born in Caltanissetta, in Arabic “Kalt El nissa”, meaning “Castle of women”, the place where the Saracen emirs kept their harems, and where the women, during their husbands' long absences, whiled away the wait by making delicious sweets. Perhaps it is to the thoughts of those long waits that we owe the classic shape of the cannolo, although other stories say it was instead the hands of the nuns of a cloistered convent near Caltanissetta that shaped the first cannoli. And the name is said to come from a carnival prank that consisted of making ricotta cream, instead of water, flow out of the “cannolo” (from “canna”, an archaic term for a kind of tap) of a drinking trough. To reconcile the two versions, many maintain that when the Normans freed Sicily from the Saracens, the harems emptied and many of the women who lived there converted to Christianity and withdrew to convents, taking with them some ancient recipes, including that of the cannolo.

Provinces compared

So the cannolo was born in Caltanissetta, yet it owes much of its fame to the pastry chefs of Palermo, who made the recipe their own and have dedicated more than one festival to this extraordinary sweet, such as the “Sagra del Cannolo Siciliano” in January and “Cannoli & Friends” in May, both held in Piana degli Albanesi. Another famous festival is the one in Gesso, near Messina, and it would be a crime not to acknowledge how good Catanese cannoli are. The cannolo is in fact delicious in every province, but the various provincial schools keep their distance with a few differences. The main one is the final decoration: chopped Bronte pistachios in Catania, whereas in Palermo, by tradition, the ends are decorated with strips of candied orange peel. The traditional recipe is delicious and complex. The pastry is made with flour and sugar, but the special thing is the filling of very fresh sheep's milk ricotta cream, which, especially in spring, takes on an inimitable flavour thanks to the new, tender and fragrant grass.

Curiosities

1) Sicilians traditionally rolled cannoli around lengths of real cane, which is abundant in Sicily. Sicilian canes are generally three to four centimetres in diameter and can reach three metres in height: this may well be the true origin of the name cannolo.

2) The theory about the origin of this sublime cylinder of ricotta, which stimulates the palate and invites interpretations between the sacred and the profane, is described by Duke Alberto Denti di Pirajno, a gastronomy enthusiast. In "Siciliani a tavola" the duke maintains that the cannolo was invented by the skilled hands of the cloistered nuns of a convent near Caltanissetta. To be precise, he writes: "The cannolo is not a Christian sweet, for the variety of its flavours and the richness of its composition betray an undoubtedly Muslim origin".

3) Marcus Tullius Cicero, when he was quaestor in Sicily at Lilybaeum (today's Marsala), described it as: "Tubus farinarius, dulcissimo, edulio ex lacte factus", i.e. “a floury tube made with milk for a very sweet food”.

4) The reference to its phallic shape evokes virility and the generative power of the earth, but also recalls its superstitious value as a symbol used against the evil eye.

Dulcis in furno: the recipe.

Ingredients for the shells (about ten):

110 g flour

15 g butter or lard

15 g caster sugar

about 40 ml Marsala or dry white wine

1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tablespoon vinegar

a pinch of salt

seed oil

For the filling

400 g sheep's milk ricotta

100 g candied fruit

100 g chocolate chips

180 g sugar

2 tablespoons orange blossom water

Method for the shells

Start by making the dough. Heap the flour on a pastry board, make a well and put in the centre the butter or lard in small pieces, the sugar, the Marsala, the cocoa, the vinegar and the salt. Knead well until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Then shape it into a ball, wrap it in a tea towel or cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for about half an hour. Knead the dough again and leave it to rest for another 30 minutes, after which you can roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. Cut the sheet into 10 cm squares and roll them around the metal tubes, taking care to wrap them diagonally, joining one corner to the opposite one and sealing them by brushing the join with egg white. Once you have rolled all the cannoli, you can start frying them in plenty of very hot oil. Take the cannoli out of the oil only when they are nicely golden and leave them on kitchen paper to drain off the excess oil.

Method for the filling

Sieve the ricotta and add the orange blossom water and the sugar, working the mixture for a long time with a wooden spoon. When the cream is smooth and the sugar has completely dissolved, you can fold in the remaining ingredients, namely the chocolate chips and the candied fruit. Mix everything well and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

Finishing

Fill the cannoli with the cream and, as you like, dust them with icing sugar and garnish the ends with cherries or candied orange peel, or with chopped Bronte pistachios.

A sweet reinvented: the deconstructed cannolo

A recent invention and fashionable in the chicest venues, the reinvented version known as the deconstructed cannolo is all the rage. The crisp shell loses its classic cannolo shape and becomes a simple sheet of pastry layered over the ricotta or chosen filling. This version certainly speeds things up and simplifies preparation: it is indeed more practical to roll out the dough, cut it and fry it than to wrap each individual cannolo. And the elaborate name lets the classic cannolo give itself a few more airs.