Leave the gun – take the Cannoli!

Cannoli – delicious and infamous fried pastry tubes, filled with creamy, sweet ricotta cheese – are the symbol of Southern Italian culture. They were made even more iconic after being mentioned in ‘The Godfather’ movie; “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli”.

Perfect with a strong espresso coffee, the traditional cannoli originated in the Sicilian city of Palermo. It’s believed the cannoli’s filling originated with the Saracens, ancient Arabic people who brought sugar cane to the region. Cannoli were once referred to by the Sicilians as ‘Cappeli de Turchi’, or ‘Turkish hats’.

In Italian, the word cannoli is plural and cannolo singular, but in English they are almost invariably referred to as cannoli. The name comes from canna, the name of the river reeds that were cut into sections and used as a mould to fry the pastry shells. Nowadays we just use metal tubes available from all good baking stores!

Top Tip: fill the shells just before serving, to avoid the cases getting soggy.

Makes 8-10

Prep: 40 minutes, plus chilling time

Cook: 20 minutes

For the cannoli

150g plain flour

1tbsp caster sugar

Pinch bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground cinnamon

30g unsalted butter

1 egg, separated

50ml dry Marsala or dry white wine

Pinch of salt

400ml Filippo Berio Mild & Light Olive Oil

For the filling

350g ricotta

2tbsp icing sugar

1tbsp Marsala wine or amaretto

40g dark chocolate, finely chopped

2tbsp candied peel, finely chopped

3tbsp pistachios, finely chopped

1 To make the cannoli: place the flour, sugar, bicarbonate and cinnamon into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients until there are no more lumps. Mix the egg yolk and marsala or wine and add this to the bowl, then mix together and knead to a make smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

2 For the filling: place the ricotta, icing sugar and Marsala or amaretto in a bowl and mix together, stir in the chocolate and candied peel. Cover and place in the fridge.

3 Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of baking paper until very thin, using a 11cm cutter, cut out 8-10 circles, wrap these around steel cannoli tubes, sealing the edge with egg white.

4 Pour the Filippo Berio Mild & Light Olive Oil into a deep fat fryer or deep saucepan and heat to 180ºC. Fry the cannoli, while on the tubes, a few at a time in the hot oil for about 45-60 seconds until golden brown; the dough will bubble and blister. Carefully take each one out of the oil using tongs and gently shake the cannoli off the tube onto kitchen paper. Allow to cool.

5 When ready to serve, spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a wide nozzle and pipe it into the cannoli. Dip the ends in the pistachios and serve immediately.