Mary Taylor Simeti's Cassateddi Di Ricotta (Ricotta Turnovers)
Makes 3
dozen
Pastry
- 3-3/4
cups flour (the author suggests using one part pastry flour to three
parts all-purpose flour)
- One-quarter
cup sugar
- One-quarter
cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup
white wine
- One-half
cup lard
Filling
- 1 and
one-half pounds ricotta, well drained with a little salt added to
it
- 1 cup
sugar
- One-half
cup semisweet chocolate bits or grated rind of 1 lemon
- Vegetable
oil for frying
- One-half
cup superfine sugar, or granulated sugar ground fine
- 1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
Sift together
the flour, sugar, and cocoa onto a marble or wooden surface. Make a
well and add the wine slowly, using just as much as it takes to make
a fairly compact dough. Cut the lard into small pieces and knead it
piece by piece into the dough. Knead for at least 15 minutes, working
the dough out into a long strip and folding it back on itself so as
to incorporate as much air as possible, until the dough is very smooth
and elastic, and shiny but not greasy to the touch. Put the dough into
a bowl, cover with a towel or a lid, and let it stand for an hour.
Save the
ricotta. Beat in the sugar, and stir in the chocolate bits or, if you
prefer something less sweet, the lemon rind.
Roll out
the dough to a very thin sheet, and cut out 3-inch disks. On each disk
place a scant tablespoon of ricotta. Fold the disks over into half-moons
and , moistening , the edges with a little water, seal them carefully.
Fry the
turnovers in adundant and very hot (about 375 degrees F.) vegetable
oil, at least 3 inches deep) until they are delicately browned. Drain
on absorbent paper and serve while still warm, sprinkled with ground
cinnamon and granulated sugar that has been ground to a fine texture
in a mortar.
The following
recipe was taken from POMP
AND SUSTENANCE: TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES OF SICILIAN FOOD by Mary Taylor
Simeti (The Ecco Press, 1998, Reprinted by arrangement with Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.)
StarChef
Mary Taylor Simeti was born and raised in New York City. In 1962 she
made her first trip to Sicily, where she now lives with her husband
and their two children. She is the author of ON
PERSEPHONE’S ISLAND: A SICILIAN JOURNAL (1986).
