Frittelle, Siracusa-style

 Per l'originale versione italiana di questa ricetta, cliccate qua. (Ti porterà al blog "Dolci Armonie.")

Periodically, I present recipes of my Italian foodblogger friends, which I translate for you into English.  The following post absolutely captivated me, for two reasons.  One is that frittelle are practically a sacred food in Sicily.  Even in today's modern world, different cities in Sicily have their own frittelle, made according to centuries-old recipes, and unavailable in any other city.  In 2011 I was in Catania and sampled their traditional frittelle. Then I went to Messina and tasted their own traditional frittelle.  The Messinese frittelle are not available in Catania, and the Catanese frittelle are not available in Messina.  And both are equally delicious!  The following is recipe, by Veronica, author of the wonderful blog Dolci Armonie (http://dolciarmonie.blogspot.com), is from Siracusa. It's different from the frittelle in either Catania or Messina – and it's equally wonderful!

The second reason this post touched me was because of Veronica's words about her dear grandmother, from whom she inherited this recipe.  I was very anxious to translate this recipe for my readers, and I thank Veronica for allowing me to do so.

LE FRITTELLE DI NONNA LUCIA
by Veronica (Dolci Armonie)

Today I suggest to you a recipe that I made yesterday and which is very close to my heart, because it was passed down to me from my grandmother Lucia, who now is no longer with us and with whom I was very close.  I still remember when she was staying at the summer home near the beach.  My parents were leaving for a week of vacation and Nonna had to watch five unrestrained little girls, and she kept us in line! We dedicated one evening, during that week without the parents, to making "FRITTELLE." We didn't know which day of the week Nonna was chosing to prepare them; it was always a surprise and every afternoon we would ask, "Nonna, stasera le frittelle?" ("Nonna, tonight will we make the frittelle?), and she would response, "No, stasira no" ("No, tonight now). When after the third day we stopped asking, she came to us and said, "Tonight we will make the frittelle." And how she enjoyed seeing our happy faces.  Try them, delicious in their simplicity, just like Nonna Lucia.  Nonna, I miss your laughter.  

Ingredients for c. 15 frittelle

For the dough:

500 g farina di grano tenero "00" (soft-grain flour — make sure it says "00" on the package)

500 g farina di grano duro (hard-grain flour)

1 cube fresh yeast*

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

tepid water 

For the filling:

500 g mozzarella 

250 g prosciutto cotto (cooked ham)

10 olives

corn oil for frying

*=Translator's note: lievito di birra refers to active fresh yeast (a.k.a., compressed yeast, cake yeast, baker's compressed yeast, wet yeast). Despite the word birra, this does not refer to brewer's yeast, a nutritional product sold in pharmacies. — L.C.

Preparation

On a flat surface, make a well with the flour.  In the center add the crumbled yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Mix the ingredients a little bit; add tepid water a little bit at a time and knead until you have a smooth, hard dough.  Divide the dough into 15 little balls and place them on a floured towel. arranged in a way that they don't touch each other. Cover the balls well and let them rise for an hour.  When they've finished rising, roll them out on a floured cutting board. On each, place pieces of ham and two slices of mozzarella, or mozzarella and 3 pitted olives, and cut in half.  Fold up the dough and close the edges as you would a calzone (see photo).

                       

Fry the frittelle in corn oil for 3 or 4 minutes per side, until golden.  Drain on paper towels, and eat them while they're hot. 

Now I leave you with a photo of my sea, taken yesterday by an intruder ... Guess who it is? ^_^