Crogetti: the Carnival sweets in my home village

There are many sweets that are traditionally made during the Carnival weeks in Tuscany: crogetti (elsewhere known as cenci or chiacchiere), zeppole (small deep fried dough balls), bomboloni (doughnuts), rice fritters (not in my area), and frati (deep fried dough rings – traditional of the Maremma area and named for the fact that they have the shape of a fiar’s belt). But crogetti are certainly the carnival sweets.

They can be covered in icing sugar or honey and icing sugar, but around here many people aso put pastry cream on them.

However, on World Nutella Day, they would be perfect with Nutella on top; so, if you feel like trying your hand at this traditional recipe, here you go!

Ingredients

• 300gr of all-purpose flour
• 10gr of baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 50gr of sugar
• orange peel
• 30gr of butter
• 2 eggs
• half a glass of vinsanto
• olive oil
• icing sugar
• honey, custard or… Nutella!

Mix the flour with baking powder, salt, sugar, finely shredded orange peel and melted butter first and then add the eggs. Slowly add the vinsanto and some more flour if necessary (i.e. if the dough is too soft), and knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.

Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes under a cloth, and then slice it. Roll out each slice until it is very thin (I use the machine I use to roll out fresh pasta dough). Make as many crogetti as you wish from each strip by cutting it horizontally.

Deep fry the crogetti in hot olive oil and pour icing sugar or honey and then icing sugar on top. On World Nutella Day, forget about honey and cover them in delicious Nutella!!!

Zeppole: the Carnival sweets in Pisa

As most of you know, my “second home” is Pisa, the city where we work and where we live from Monday to Friday. Northern Tuscany dffers significantly from Southern Tuscany, not only in the landscape but also in its traditions. In Pisa around Carnival time you will find cenci (if you ask for crogetti they will have no idea what you are talking about), but you will also first and foremost find rice fritters (which in my home village are traditionally served on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day and Father’s Day and not at Carnival) and zeppole.

Zeppole are usually filled with pastry cream (custard) and would be perfect filled with Nutella on World Nutella Day!

So here is the recipe!

Ingredients

•  3 eggs
• 200gr of all-purpose flour
• 75gr of sugar
• a pinch of salt
• vanilla extract
• lemon peel
• olive oil
• icing sugar (or more regular sugar)
• frying oil

Beat the eggs and slowly add sugar, salt, vanilla extract, the lemon peel (finely shredded), and three tablespoons of olive oil.  Add baking powder and flour and keep mixing until smooth. Heat the frying oil and pour small balls of dough into it  using a tea spoon. Fry until golden. Drain dry and fill them with Nutella using a piping bag or a pastry syringe. Roll the zeppole in icing or regular sugar and enjoy!

(From Manuale di Cucina)

Happy Nutella Day!

Inconceivable and unacceptable, but true. In the end, Nutella is widely acknowledged as the best anti-stress tool ever… (I was tempted to write “universally”…) and you tell me if there is a more stressful time in life than when you have to be on a diet! It makes no sense!

Basically, if you are on a diet, you can pretty much forget about World Nutella Day and go back to your sad veggies. But, all Nutella lovers know that it’s not that easy to get over the thought of that delicious, creamy spoonful of dark, creamy chocolate.

For some reason, Nutella is addictive. I cannot keep a jar of Nutella in my house, or I’ll finish it. Well maybe not if I had a jar the size of Nanni Moretti’s consolatory “barattolone”… A cult favourite in Italy!

Nutella has been my best friend on numerous occasions: after break-ups, before exams and presentations, and not long ago, after my nose surgery, it was the only food I could actually taste. The tricks of fate… maybe it was psychological, but, oh God, it was good!!! And I was sick, so I felt completely entitled to as much Nutella as I wanted! Hence the present diet… As we say in Italian, “goie e dolori“, joys and sorrows.

I won’t be celebrating in style today, but I can still dream of it! And my dream is a Nutella Day on my Diet Plan, something that goes like this:

Breakfast: 30gr of bread + a tablespoon of Nutella (approx. 150 calories), 1 cappuccino with no sugar (approx. 80 calories)

Morning snack: Croissant with Nutella (approx. 259 calories)

Lunch: 100 gr. meat with 200 gr. vegetables (approx. 150 calories), 10 gr. of olive oil (approx. 90 calories), 1 green apple with Nutella dip (approx. 300 calories), 1 coffee no sugar

Afternoon snack: Crepe with Nutella (approx. 360 calories)

Dinner: 100 gr of meat with 200 gr of vegetables (approx.150 calories), 10 gr. of olive oil (approx. 90 calories), 5 tablespoons of nutella in front of the tv.(approx. 220 calories)

Total of 1849 calories. 450 calories more than I should have. Not that bad… maybe if I go for a long walk… but then I would have to bring my Nutella energy jar with me and that would thwart all my efforts…

No Nutella Day celebrations for me this year, but I’d like to thank Sara Rosso, Shelley and Michelle Fabio for providing me with this opportunity to dream about a Nutella diet plan! I might in fact perfect it and try it out!