FIOCCHI: PEAR AND CHEESE PURSES

FIOCCHI: PEAR AND CHEESE PURSES image

Categories Pasta Fry

Number Of Ingredients 6

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Ingredients

Ingredients:
2.2 lb of flour (all purpose) 4 eggs (I use large brown eggs) 5 ½ oz unsalted butter (room temperature) 2-2.5 tsp baking powder (I do it without measuring; I think around 2 tsp will do) 6 ¾ oz white wine (dry or any kind of non-heavy and not too aromatic wine will do) 2 lemon zests + juice of 1 lemon (may add orange and lemon zest; one and one) 1 tbs rum or grappa a pinch of salt powdered sugar (for decoration) canola oil for frying
Filling:
Pear
Gorgonzola
3 other types of cheeses if needed

Steps:

Notes: Have an extra 1-cup or so of flour, to use when rolling the dough into strips and spreading it across the table. There is no sugar in this recipe; the only sugar is the powdered sugar that is sprinkled on the fiocchi. Out of the 2.2 lb of flour, set aside 1.5 cup or so for later, mix the rest with baking powder, salt; add the lemon zest (not the juice here!); cut the butter into cubes and add to the mixture. Mix the ingredients by hand. To the dough, add the following (you can do that in a Kitchen Aid mixer; by hand will do as well; easy recipe): 4 beaten eggs, then add the mixture of wine, lemon juice and rum (or grappa). Once all the ingredients are blended in, add the remaining 1½-cup flour slowly to the mixture. The dough should be dense but not too dense or dry (see photographs above). Depending on the type of flour and the room's humidity, you may have extra flour or need a bit more. I roll out the dough with the help of a hand-operated pasta machine, first on size 2 then 6. Cut them into 1-inch wide strips, around 17-20 inches long, depending on the size of fiocchi that you want to make. Put lots of oil in a pan (approx. 36-oz in a bigger, a bit taller pan) and heat it well. When a fiocco goes into the pan, it should pop to the surface in a maximum of 2 seconds after it touches the bottom of the pan. Fry on both sides until crisp and slightly golden. Put on a paper towel to dry the excess oil (because the fiocchi are much thinner than crostoli, they fry quickly and absorb very little oil, good for your heart! When all are done (and there will be lots of fiocchi with 2.2 lbs of flour), put on a big plate or bowl, and sprinkle each layer with powdered sugar. The smell of the fiocchi is hard to resist, the lemon zest, combined with other ingredients, does miracles!