Cannoli are a fried pastry shell filled with sweet ricotta cheese. We had a taste test in three famous pastry shops in the North End of Boston. They were all amazing.
Ingredients
Filling
2 pounds ricotta cheese, (preferably from sheep)
1 pound sugar
milk to taste
vanilla to taste
cinnamon to taste
Shells
7 ounces all-purpose flour
1 ounce cocoa powder
1 ounce sugar
2 eggs
¾ ounce butter
salt to taste
1 tablespoon Marsala wine, or Rum
lard, or frying olive oil to taste
powdered sugar, for serving
Directions
Shells
1Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, melted butter and eggs in a bowl. Then add the Marsala, or if you prefer, the rum. Continue mixing until the dough is smooth, then wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for half an hour.
2Roll out the cannoli dough and cut it into squares, about 4 inches per side. Then wrap the squares around the metal tubes to shape the cannoli. Fry the dough, still wrapped around the tubes, in a large pot of boiling lard or olive oil. Let the cannoli cool on paper towels. Once cool, slide out the metal tubes.
Filling
1With a fork, mix the ricotta and sugar, adding a bit of milk and a dash of vanilla extract and cinnamon.
2Fill the shells with the ricotta filling and sprinkle the outside with powdered sugar.
Note - The cannoli should be filled right before serving: after a few hours they tend to become soft and lose that nice crunchiness which is the main feature of this dessert.