PANZAROTTI
Historically the Napoletani have been able and brilliant friggitori-fryers of food. Until only a few years past and sometimes, still, in the quarters of the poor, the very air was thick with the scents of food being crisped to a light gold in boiling oil. The humble kiosks of the friggitori, traditionally wagons fitted with cauldrons, were wheeled about the dank alleyways, the friggitori wailing out the worth of their salty wares, promising them to be "nuvole ricoperte d'un manto dorato"-"clouds mantled in gold." Sometimes, the offering was a nugget of simple bread dough stretched out and fried, then dusted in sea salt and anointed with oil, other times there might be little croquettes of rice and cheese or fritters of broccoli or artichokes. Often, though, the friggitori brought forth lusciously crunchy half-moons of dough plumped with mozzarella and known as panzarotti. Our favorite kiosk sits, still, in front of the Pizzeria Bellini, just down the street from the Accademia delle Belli Arti in Via Costantinopoli, a tiny quiver of space where one can stand, at nine in the morning, even, to bite at hot, too hot, savories while listening to two violins, a viola, a violoncello, and a Baroque guitar working through Boccherini. Here follows a version of panzarotti made from course dough rolled thin, laid with mozzarella, pecorino, and bits of salty meat or tomato or anchovy, folded over and cast into whorls of bubbling oil.
Yield makes 10 savory pastries
Number Of Ingredients 16
Steps:
- In a small bowl, soften the yeast in the water, permitting it to rest and dissolve for 15 minutes. In another small bowl, combine the olive oil, the salt, and the milk. Measure out the flour and the polenta meal into a large bowl, add the yeast and the olive oil mixtures, forming a rough dough of the ingredients. Turn the dough out onto a work space and knead the dough to a smooth resiliency, a task that takes at least 6 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and permit it to rise for 35 to 45 minutes or until it has nearly doubled.
- Divide the dough in two. Roll out the first piece into a large rectangular shape about 1/4 inch in thickness. With a biscuit or a pastry cutter, cut 5-inch rounds from the dough. Reroll the scraps and cut again. Repeat the process with the remaining half of the dough. Cover the disks with a clean kitchen towel, permitting them a 10-minute rest.
- Place one-tenth of the mozzarella over one side of each disk. Dust the mozzarella with the pecorino, adding your choice of either the meat, the tomatoes, or the anchovies. Grind pepper generously over the filling. Fold the uncovered half of the disk over the filling, pressing down on the edges, sealing them well, then pinching the ends and forming a half-moon of the pastry.
- Cover the panzarotti with a clean kitchen towel while the oil heats in a deep, heavy pan. Choose the pan so that the liter of oil will yield a depth of at least 5 inches. When the oil is very hot but not yet smoking, add a few of the panzarotti, browning them well before turning them over with tongs and browning the other sides.
- Remove the panzarotti to absorbent paper towels, transferring them to a plate in a 150-degree oven while they wait the crisping of the others. Better yet, present them pan to plate to mouth right in the kitchen, as long as someone is dutiful about the furnishing of cold white wine.
- There's nothing to do but go out to dinner after the triumph of the panzarotti. There will seem few dishes with which one might follow these. Better to compare them to someone else's work than your own.
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