Cannoli

Guide Note

The cannoli is an Italian confection originating in Sicily. The dessert consists of a fried pastry tube filled with a sweet ricotta cheese mixture. Making it at home requires special metal cannoli tubes, around which the sweet pasta dough is wrapped, then deep fried. The fried shell is slid off the tube while still hot, then allowed to drain and cool before being filled with the ricotta mixture, which is piped in with a pastry bag.

Fast Facts

1. Filling can be made with ricotta, marscapone or custard
2. A favorite food of the Sicilian Carnival
3. Introduced to Sicily by the Byzantines
4. A single cannoli is called a cannolo, meaning “little tube”
5. Additions: Chocolate chips, pistachios, candied citrus peel

For the pastry:

1. Flour
2. Sugar
3. Butter
4. Cinnamon
5. Marsala

For the filling:

1. Ricotta Cheese
2. Sugar
3. Vanilla
4. Orange Zest
5. Egg White

Oil for frying and powdered sugar for serving are also needed.