Frittelle di Carnevale

Hi folks, I've been off the hook for a couple of months - apologies! I come back with an awesome sweet recipe: frittelle di Carnevale. It's Carnival season in Italy right now and I do have to say that I miss stuffing my face with all these tasty sweets my grandma would cook for us. There are a lot of recipes for Carnival, and they change from region to region. I want to share this one with you because it's the easiest, I think, and you can easily source the ingredients in North America :)

Recipe for frittelle:

2 eggs

7 gr or 1 small packet of yeast (or baking powder - if using baking powder only 1 tsp)

1 cup of milk

1 small glass of mixed liquors (brandy, grappa, marsala, white wine)

3 small golden apples

1/2 cup of raisins

1 1/4 cups of white sugar

1 lemon peel (grated)

1 orange peel (grated)

pinch of salt

~2 cups of flour (as needed)

1 l of canola oil

Start by soaking the raisins in brandy. Take a small bowl, beat sugar and eggs . Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Add milk and liquors. Peel the apples, remove the core and chop in small pieces (same size as a raisin), place in a big bowl. Add the grated lemon and orange peel and give it a whisk. Add the contents from the small bowl - sugar, eggs, milk and liquors and add the soaked raisins with their alcohol too.

Add yeast (or baking powder) and start adding flour, mix well. It should take about 2 cups of flour, the consistency should be pretty wet but you should be able to scoop the dough up.

Let it rest for half an hour. In the meantime, heat up about 1 liter of canola oil in a capacious skillet or frying pan, drop a small piece of dough to see if it's ready: it should start bubbling around the dough. If it's ready, remove the dough that you dropped in there as a test. Have a dish near you ready with some paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Now it will take a bit of practice to get this right, so start with just one: scoop up a spoonful of dough and with the help of another spoon, drop it gently in the oil. Move the dough ball around after about 15 seconds, it should be golden brown. These frittelle cook pretty quickly so you have to keep an eye on them. With the help of a slotted spatula, remove the first frittella from the pan and place in in the dish. You can now use the same process but will be able to cook 4-5 frittelle at the same time - be careful to drop the dough gently and as close to the oil as possible to avoid getting burnt. Repeat for all the remaining dough.

Once finished, you can sprinkle frittelle with icing sugar or roll them in white sugar if you'd like. Enjoy!

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Tips:

Frittelle will last 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature.