Today’s recipe comes to you from the beautiful island of Sicily. Follow our chef’s recipe and treat your family and friends to an authentic Italian dessert! 

1 2/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

2 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of red wine

2 tablespoon melted butter

½ to ¾ cup water

Vegetable oil, for deep frying

Filling:

1 ½ pound of fresh ricotta cheese

½ cup sugar

½ cup chocolate chips or good dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup candied peel, finely sliced

4 glace cherries and icing sugar to decorate

Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, melted butter, and salt. Add enough wine to make a smooth, stretchable dough. Form into a ball, cover with a cloth and let stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile drain your ricotta cheese. Add the sugar, chocolate chips and the candied fruit. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat enough vegetable oil in a deep pan to be able to submerge the shells.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured board to about 1/8 of an inch thick (or use a pasta machine). Cut out into squares, about 8cm/ 3 inch per side, and roll again until very thin. Wrap dough around tube by overlapping the 2 sides, sealing the overlapping sides with a little egg white. Be sure the edges are well sealed  because they tend to pop open when frying.

Drop 1 or 2 of the tubes at a time into the hot oil. Fry until they are light brown and crisp. Place on paper towels to drain. Let the shells cool before removing them from the tubes. Do this until all of your dough is used.

Place filling in a piping bag with large nozzle and fill cold cannoli shells from both enda. Decorate each end with a piece of glace cherry and dust the cannoli with icing sugar.