I am told that my grandmother made great cannoli. I’m sure I tasted it when I was a kid, but by the time I was old enough to really have any memory of foods and flavors, she was old enough that making cannoli wasn’t a regular activity. Last year, my aunt and I took a heritage trip to Sicily. For the last few years, I’ve been working on a cookbook manuscript with my modern take on a bunch of the Sicilian family recipes I remember growing up with and I wanted to take an actual trip to Sicily, to see where my family was from and taste the food myself for research and inspiration. We spent some time in the big cities—eating arancini in Palermo, tasting Marsala wine in Marsala— and then my aunt and I made our way to a tiny little town called Aragona in the region of Agrigento, where the Amato family hailed from.
It was a small, quiet village, and we were the only ones out that day as we walked around the palazzo. There was a church with it’s doors shuttered, a closed cafe, and the crumbling facade of what used to be city hall. On the statue in the center of the square were names of people from the town who had fought in World War II that we scrutinized, looking for any surnames we recognized.
Later that night, we had booked a cooking class in a woman’s home in the next town over. We wanted to learn more about the specific food of the region and it turned out that our host’s husband was also from the little town of Aragona. That night, over little cups of espresso and wine, we rolled pasta and stuffed squid and of course, we made cannoli.
party cannoli
A few years ago, my dad scanned and compiled all of my grandmother’s recipe cards into a word document and I consult it often when I have questions about how she made caponata or for her briolata recipe. Thankfully, it also contains her cannoli recipe. The recipe is quite similar to the one we made in Agrigento, and I blended my favorite parts from the two into this recipe.
Though I originally planned on sharing this recipe as traditional rolled cannoli, I wanted something a little easier to make for a crowd. It's party season, after all. We have a little Italian market in our neighborhood that we frequent regularly and in their bakery section, they sell house made cannoli chips. They are little triangles of cannoli dough, similar to pita or tortilla chips, dusted with powdered sugar and served with a condiment cup of filling. Martin and I get them often and keep them in the fridge for snacking—I love that I can snag a bite after lunch when I’m craving something sweet and they don’t get soggy quickly the way that filled cannolis do.
I discovered that cannoli chips are great for the holidays. They don’t take quite as much effort as rolled cannoli and can be made ahead of time and put out on a dessert table for snacking. We’re calling them party cannoli and they make a great addition to your holiday table.
P.S. This recipe will include instructions for making traditional rolled cannoli as well, if that is what floats your boat.
party cannoli
makes 10 rolled cannoli or enough cannoli chips to serve 4-6 people
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