Paola's Sfogliatelle
La sfogliatella riccia is the queen of the Neapolitan cakes. A true masterpiece of Roccocò art which also happens to be delicious. So beautiful you almost don’t want to ruin it by biting into its layered, crunchy shell- shaped pastry, but when you do, oh my! That initial crunching sound eliciting the puff of icing sugar floating in the air and your nostrils, swiftly followed by the smooth, sweet, silky mouthful of orange and cinnamon-infused ricotta and semolina, and there you are, in Heaven!
No surprise that la sfogliatella, like many other Neapolitan cakes, was created by nuns. Maybe this was their way of feeling closer to God?
Sfogliatelle were invented in a monastery at the end of 18th century.
Indeed, the majority of Neapolitan cakes were conceived in convents including the Roccocò at Convento dell’Annunziata, the Pastiera at the Convento of San Gregorio Armeno and the Susamielli at the convent of S.Maria della Sapienza.
La sfogliatella was created by the Monastero Della Croce Di Lucca at the end of the 18th century, perhaps by a great lady forced to take the veil or a humble convert devoted to both her faith - and the manufacture of sublime pastries!
This tradition was born out of the gentle custom of offering visitors to the monastery some sweet delicacies on arrival. These small but delicious offerings were so exquisite and inimitable, because they were created in the serenity of the cloister, which gave the nuns the time, patience – and peace - necessary for these elaborate creations. And believe me, you need a lot of time and patience to make these cakes!
So lauded and celebrated were these sfogliatelle that the orders started flooding in, first from private individuals, then later from bakeries and restaurants who realised how popular they would be to their customers. The recipe was kept behind closed doors for decades but in 1818 Pasquale Pintauro, a restaurateur, found the secret and, having transformed his restaurant into a pastry shop, began to make the sfogliatelle. Pintauro soon became famous throughout the city. The shop was so crowded, with customers queuing up outside the door that even today there is a saying ‘Nce sta folla ‘a Pintauro’ meaning ‘There is a crowd, just like at Pintauro’.
Other versions were created by different monasteries, which somehow managed to steal the secret recipe for the pastry. The most famous version is the Sfogliatella di Santa Rosa – which is bigger, filled with custard cream and topped with sour cherries in syrup. This one was created by the nuns of Il Monastero di Santa Rosa. Today it’s a marvellous luxurious resort, perched over the cliff of the Amalfi Coast - a sanctuary in the sky with its vertigo-inducing vista. A heavenly view for cakes inspired by the Divine.
Sfogliatella frolla is a simpler version of this recipe, made with short crust pastry instead of puff pastry, but undeniably, the queen remains the ‘riccia’ version.
INGREDIENTS
For The Pastry
1 kg Manitoba Flour
20 gr salt
300 gr water
300 gr lard
For the filling
250 gr semolina
5 gr salt
750 gr water
250 gr Ricotta cheese
275 gr sugar
2 eggs
25 gr candied orange peel
Icing sugar to sprinkle on top
METHOD
This pastry is pretty elaborate and time-consuming to make, but it does reward you with the most fabulous looking confection, of which you can be genuinely proud.
It’s important to use the Manitoba flour (very fine flour, usually used for cakes) and good quality raw-processed lard. The dough needs to be very hard to work, especially at the beginning, without adding water. It must never be pulled or torn but rather pressed with your hands or a rolling pin. Place the flour on a clean surface and make a well in the middle. Add the salt and pour in the water little by little until it’s completely absorbed by the flour.
Nuns were the creators of the sublime sfogliatelle. Photo Kyle Petzer Unsplash
Every Italian cafe worth its salt serves sfogliatelle. Photo Andy Falconer. Unsplash
Knead the dough by pressing it with the palm of your hands and hitting it with the rolling pin, then feed it through the pasta machine (it’s much easier, if you have one) a few times at the maximum width until smooth and elastic. Roll the dough into a ball, brush with lard and place in the fridge.
After one hour, the dough is worked again through the pasta machine without ever adding flour, initially at a maximum width which is gradually reduced to almost the minimum, until it becomes a couple of millimetres thick.
At this point, place the dough at the end of the table, slightly folded like an accordion and begin to spread it even more thinly (until it reaches less than a millimetre thick), just the initial part of the pasta strip, without cutting it. Roll the edge until you have a roll as thick as a pencil, and brush this thinner piece of dough evenly with lard, continuing to roll it tightly on itself, pulling it to you, to thin the pastry as much as possible, and taking care that the strip does not widen. Stop a few centimetres before arriving at the non-greased piece and, without making it break, thin another piece as with the first time, roll up, sprinkle with lard and continue this operation until the end of the strip of pasta. This will result in a sort of stick-shaped dough of about 30 cm in length and 7 - 8 cm in diameter. Brush it all with lard, cover with baking paper and put in the fridge to rest for 24 hours or more.
While the dough rests, prepare the filling: boil water with salt, then let the semolina cook at high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then pour onto a clean surface to cool down. Mix the ricotta and the sugar well and add the semolina, cinnamon and the eggs one by one, until the mixture becomes smooth. Finally, add the candied fruit, cut into very small pieces.
The sfogliatelle dough will be approx 1 mm thick
After 24 hours rest, take out the roll of dough from the fridge, put it on the table and with a sharp knife, cut into slices about one centimetre thick. (The slices are basically composed of a very long ribbon of dough rolled up on itself as if it were a piece of ribbon.) Take one of these in your hands, grease it on the upper side with a knob of lard and turn it between your fingers, sliding the fingers with very light pressure and working the thumbs outwards (the other fingers placed inside make the reverse movement, from the outside to the inside, so as to direct the upper cut of the strips towards the edges and resulting in a flattened, almost concave shape. Repeat the operation for the rest of the strips of dough.
Take up these concave shapes one by one and, pressing gently with the thumb on the centre, accentuate the convexity giving each of them a funnel shape. Holding it in the hollow of the cupped hand, fill with about a spoonful of stuffing. Without closing them but just bringing the edges together, place them on a baking sheet and put in a preheated oven at 250 degrees. After 5 minutes of cooking, pull from the oven for a couple of minutes (remove any excess liquid of lard if necessary), then place back in the oven until they become blond in colour. (It will take a total of 10 = 15 minutes of cooking). When ready, remove from the oven, allow to cool and then sprinkle with icing sugar.
So - not exactly a piece of cake to make – but absolutely worth it
Paola is our in-house cook, here at the House of Talents. She is offering Italian inspired cookery classes for adults and kids.
£40 for one individual online class - but you can bring all the family or gather a group of friends, to learn how to cook the Italian dish of your dreams!
To get in touch with Paola to book a one-to-one session:
Email: paolacimmino3@gmail.com
Instagram: @cucina_cimmino
In the House of Talents we have over 40 established writers, playwrights, musicians, actors, performers, mindfulness coaches as well as a yoga teacher, a home cook and a publisher. They are offering creative online courses ranging from public speaking, performing and acting to puppet-making, Kundalini yoga and reiki. Coaches charge just £5 for a group class or workshop and we give 10 % of the proceeds to our chosen charities, which include Greenpeace, Mind and Save the Children.
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