Holy Cannoli!

We finished with the final regions of Italy yesterday in class. Sicily and Sardinia. The big island parts of Italy. For these regions, we made pane carasau and cannoli. I had never tried cannoli. A lot of people can't believe this. But those are mostly the people from New York. I'm pretty sure cannoli hardly exist in good ol' Missouri. Well, they will now. They (the two and a half cannoli I inhaled) were wonderful. I'll make them again. (Note to Mom: I think we should invest some in cannoli molds.)

First, the pane carasau. Pane carasau is a thin, crisp flatbread that sort of looks like a tortilla. It's used in many different ways, often in a lasagna-like dish where the pane carasau is used instead of pasta. That's how we used it.

For 6 servings, you need:

400gr buffalo mozzarella

4 bell peppers

Rosemary

2 garlic cloves

4 (or more, big) green olives

4 (or more, big) black olives

4 slices pane carasau (store-bought)

Oil, salt, pepper



Slice the buffalo mozzarella, and put it in a colander to drain for 20 minutes. Roast the bell pepper in the oven until soft and browned. (Your kitchen will smell awesome.) Remove the peppers from the oven, and put them in a ziplock bag for a few minutes to steam. Then peel the peppers, take out the seeds, and cut the peppers into big strips. Salt them and add quite a bit of chopped rosemary, chopped garlic, and oil. Take out the seeds from the olives, and cut the olives in big pieces. Place two pieces of pane carasau on a big sheet of foil. Top it with about a third of the mozzarella, bell pepper, and olives. Place another piece of pane carasau on top, more toppings, then the last pane carasau, and the rest of the toppings.

My Teacher Layering our Pane Carasau

Before Baking

Close the edges of the dish with foil, and bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Ready to Eat

For the cannoli, you need:

150gr flour

10gr sugar

1 egg white

2 tablespoons marsala liquor

Pinch of salt

30gr Crisco

250gr ricotta

100gr powdered sugar

30gr mini chocolate chips (or candied fruit)

Chopped pistachios (or candied cherries)

More powdered sugar

Carefully melt the Crisco in a pan over low heat, and immedietly remove from heat to let cool.

Dump your flour out on the table. Make a hole in the middle for the sugar, salt, egg white, marsala liquor, and melted Crisco. Mix it all together with your hands until you've made a ball. Leave it to rest a while, an hour if you have time.

Get out your cannoli forms and wipe them with Crisco.

Take a little piece of dough. Roll it very thin, as thin as possible. Cut it in a circle.

Rolling Out Cannoli Dough

Roll the dough around the cannoli mold and make sure to close the edges very well, otherwise it'll open up when you fry it.

Cannoli Molds

Deep fry the cannoli/cannoli forms in very hot oil.

Frying

Dry them on paper towels. Take out the molds when cool. Be careful; they break easily.

Empty Cannoli

Mix ricotta with powdered sugar and chocolate chips (or candied fruit) until just mixed. Put it in a pastry bag and pipe the filling into the cannoli. Dip the ends into chopped pistacchios (or put a candied cherry on each end), and then sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve!

Cannoli!

Now for your JS update.

Here's our kitchen window.

Jusy a typical window, drying rack, etc.

And here's the deck they're building for JS right outside that window.

Jersey Shore Deck!

Our landlady came by yesterday to tell us not to sign anything without talking to her first if the tv people come by to talk to us. We might have to have passes to get into our apartment when the security guards are here.

CRAZY.