Struffoli or Cicerchiata

Laura in the Kitchen

Struffoli   Pronounced STROO’ FOAL LEE

Struffoli (is a Neapolitan dish made of deep fried balls of dough about the size of marbles. Crunchy on the outside and light inside, struffoli are mixed with honey and other sweet ingredients. There are many different ways to flavour them, but the traditional way is to mix them in honey with diavulilli (nonpareils sprinkles), cinnamon, and bits of orange rind. In Calabria they are also known as scalilli, and in Abruzzi cicerchiata. They are often served at Christmas or over the Easeter Holidays especially on Fat Tuesday or Carnevale and are sometimes served warm.

A similar dish is described by Archestratus, a Greek poet from Gela in Sicily. It was called enkris (Greek: ἐγκρίς) — a dough-ball fried in olive oil, which he details in his Gastronomy; a work now lost, but partially preserved in the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus, which mentions enkris thirteen times, in various inflected forms.

The name struffoli originates from the Greek word strongoulos, which means rounded.

There is a variation of the Sicilian pastry called Pignolata  which originated in Messina and is also common in Calabria. It is a soft pastry, covered in chocolate and lemon-flavoured syrup/icing. This pastry is half covered or iced in one flavouring and the other half in the other flavour, which hardens when the pignolata is ready to be served. Each pastry serves several people, and is meant to be cut into small pieces when served. In Sicily, this dessert was made for Carnevale, the last celebration before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

The similarity relatie to struffoli: Pignolata can be also made of small portions of fried pastry, like large pearls, in a hot honey sauce, with chopped almonds or hazelnuts. Before serving, they are set on a plate, as a crown, with chopped nuts sprinkled over the top.