This Sicilian cannoli recipe is a homage to one of Italy’s favourite sweet treats. Meaning “little tubes”, cannoli are straight from your dessert dreams: deep-fried curls of pastry filled with delectable cream made from ricotta, chocolate, and citrus zest. Impossible to resist!
Sicilian cannoli
Ingredients
Cannoli
- 240g (2 cups) cake flour
- 10ml (2 tsp) ground cinnamon
- 30ml (2 tbsp) butter
- 15ml (1 tbsp) sugar
- pinch of salt
- 190ml (¾ cup) Marsala
- 1 large egg white, for sealing
- oil, for deep-frying
Filling
- 500g fresh ricotta
- 200g castor sugar
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped
- 30ml (2 tbsp) vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- zest of 1 orange
- icing sugar, for dusting
- pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped, to serve
Instructions
To make the cannoli, mix together the flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar and salt. Gradually mix in the wine and work with your hands to form a stiff dough. Shape into a ball, cover with a cloth and leave to rest for about 1 hour.
Roll the dough out thinly and cut into ovals. Place a thick metal tube diagonally across each oval (you can use canneloni tubes for this) and wrap the dough around the tube, overlapping the edges. Seal the edges with a little egg white.
Heat the oil in a deep pot and fry the dough-wrapped tubes one at time until golden. Drain and allow to cool a little, then slide the cooked shell off the tube. Set aside to cool completely.Repeat for the remaining cannoli.
For the filling, mix all the ingredients well together. Fill the cooled cannoli with this mixture and smooth evenly at each end. Sprinkle with the sugar and pistachios and refrigerate until ready to serve.
