Fiadone, Fiadone Dolce, Fiadoni, Fiadoni Dolci, Fiatoni, Sciatun, Hiaune, Hiadone or H'iatun'*

For pastry dough

2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar
Four as needed (about 1 1/2 cups)

For filling

1 egg
1 container of ricotta, strained
4 teaspoons sugar


* Fiadone (singular) or fiadoni (plural) were originally known as "h'iatun'" or "hiadone" in the Molise countryside. However tourist brochures from this region now refer to them as "fiadone." On the world-wide web this style of cheese pastry has many different names, including: fiadone con ricotta, fiadone al ricotta, fiadone di ricotta, fiadoni con ricotta, fiadoni al ricotta, fiadoni di ricotta, fiadone dolce, fiatoni and sweet fiadone.

Mix the pastry dough ingredients and work into a fine dough.

Let the dough rest for four to six hours.

Divide the dough into small portions and pass it through the pasta machine (but not to the last number, should not be too thin). Pastry dough resembles lasagna noodles.

Pipe small mounds of filling on pastry noodle; cut into portions.

Press together pastry pockets with fork.

Make tiny air vents on top of the pastry pockets.

Brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a shallow greased and floured pan in a 325 degree oven for fifteen to twenty minutes.

I watched my Zia Rosina make this recipe, and these are the ingredients as I remember them. At that time I didn't take a nice photo of her "fiadone," so in fact the photo attached to this recipe is of my mother's recipe for "fiadone di ricotta" (Ones I myself did). My mother's and aunt's fiadone look a lot alike (The two come from the same town), except my aunt's are a bit smaller and they look more like squares than half-moon shaped pockets. Because my aunt uses both the yolk of an egg and the egg white for her ricotta mixture and my mother simply adds egg whites the taste between the two fiadone recipes differ substantially (Such differences would not come through in any photo taken.). In any case, I grew up with my mother's version of "fiadone con ricotta," so of course, I prefer that recipe (Fiadone con Ricotta, Version I), but in this I am obviously prejudiced. Even though my mother and my aunt come from the same town, their recipes differ. There seems to be no authentic recipe for any traditional dish as each household in Italy prior to World War II had their own take on it. The touchy-feelie approach to country cooking produced wonderful variations and enriched the lives of those who were lucky enough to feast on them.

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