Is to start your day the way lots of Neapolitans do: with a sfogliatella riccia, served warm. Layers of paper-thin dough are wrapped around a creamy ricotta-citrus custard to create a food just short of heavenly. Absolutely, completely, positively heavenly. (Can you say that about your morning oatmeal?!)
Heavenly? Well, the original sfogliatella was created at the Santa Rosa monastery on the Amalfi coast back in the 17th century! As the story goes, a little bit of leftover semolina, milk and a certain lemon liquor provided the inspiration for the filling. Encased in a pastry crust made to resemble a monk's hood and baked to a golden brown, we have the santarosa. This treat was kept local until around 1800 when the recipe somehow (miraculously?) found its way into the hands of a Neapolitan chef by the name of Pasquale Pintauro. After a few changes were made to the recipe, we have the modern incarnation of the sfogliatella riccia. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, Pintauro closed his restaurant and converted it into a pastry shop. It's still there, by the way, on via Toledo.
Well, this is all good and yummy, but how even do you say sfogliatella (or plural, sfogliatelle) ?! It's a pretty intimidating name, I'll give it that.
Say it with me: Sfoy-yah-TELL-la. Got it?
Keep practicing, because I'll be back later this week with 2 more posts about sfogliatelle! It's going to get messy!
A presto!
Post
Great post, Alison. You're making me hungry from afar.
RispondiEliminaKelley