How to Make Panzerotti & Pizzelle

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes for the preparation, 1 hour for the rising, 5 minutes for cooking
Details: approx. €15 to serve 7 people

Ok, we could not end the Pizza chapter without talking about the world-renowned Panzerotti and the not-so-famous-but-even-better Pizzelle Napoletane.

Seriously, have you ever tried a real pizzella or panzerotto outside Italy? Well, it's ridiculously difficult, rather impossible. We all agree: that's a real shame. However, the good news is that you can perfectly reproduce the authentic recipe.... at home!

We're talking about a super-easy recipe that does not require any long rising time and, most of all, makes everybody happy! Why? It's fried. And funny. Everybody can make it's own panzerotto during a party or friends dinner, filling it with the ingredient he/she likes the most. It will then take seconds to cook.

Ok, I'm talking way too much (ingredients are for approximately 4 people):

• 500 gr.  strong white flour (better if stoneground) 
• 25 gr. fresh yeast  (see the Pizza post for more infos about yeast)
• 125 gr. water
• 125 gr. milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• deep frying oil

Crumble the yeast with your hands and put it in a plastic/glass bowl. Add milk and mix it with the yeast for a while. Then add a previously whisked egg, water, sugar, oil. After whisking all the ingredients together, gradually add the flour.  Whisk everything with a fork for 1 minute and then add salt (when the yeast is melted with all the other ingredients). Never add salt before mixing the ingredients, as it would damage the yeast. Continue to whisk with the fork and then with your hands. 

You don't need to knead the dough or remove it from the bowl: the important is that it gets quite compact (still, not dry), like the one in the picture below. Donìt whisk the dough too much: you need to respect His Majesty the Yeast.

When it gets like this, leave it rise for 1 hour or 2, covering the bowl with cling film and leaving it outside the fridge at room temperature. After 1 hour (or 2), remove the film and stretch the dough on the counter. It should be quite thin, approximately 0,5 cm thick. 

Heat the frying oil in a saucepan until it gets ready for frying. Use the old method to check if the oil is ready: drop a bread crumbs or a very small piece of dough into the oil. If it takes 60 seconds to brown, then the oil is at 365.

Here we go with the 2 variations! Apologies for the low-quality pictures, but pizzelle & panzerotti are super good when they're hot and we could not waste time with the camera, of course!

Pizzelle

For Pizzelle, you need tomatoe sauce, grated parmesan and a leaf of basil for each pizzella. Tomatoe sauce should be rigorously neapolitan: to prepare it, just fry 2 pieces of garlic in a pan with some extra-virgin olive oil. When garlic gets brownish add the pomodori pelati (tomatoes "pelati") and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Let it cook over a low fire for 20 minutes,  adding water if the sauce is draining too much.

Use a glass to shape the dough so that you have round pieces, i.e. our Pizzelle. Gently lower them, one by one, into the oil. Let them fry for 1/2 minutes until they get dark brown (don't take them out too early, as the dough might not completely cook inside).

When ready, drain them on a tray and add the topping: a bit of tomatoe sauce, grated parmesan, grated Pecorino and a leaf of basil. Yummy.

Panzerotti

Same as before, you just need to shape the dough differently and fill it with whatever you might have in your fridge. Ok, I was joking when saying "whatever" (Actually I was not joking when saying this, until I went to a place here in Dublin offering panzerotti filled with ham and pineapple...). Cut the dough to form a slightly bigger rectangle and add fresh ingredients in the middle of it.  Recommended combinations of ingredients to fill in the dough:

• Mozzarella + anchovies
• Mozzarella + chopped salami + provola cheese
• Ham + mozzarella
• Whatever Good and Reasonable you have in the fridge (no pineapple, please!)

Then fold it over and make a little half moon. Now press the edges to seal them and remove the air inside (start from one side up to the other of the half moon). It's now ready to go in the pan! Unbelievably delicious.

I should just stop eating. . .