Ingredients
For taralli dough
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour (Might need about 1/8 cup more of flour, depending on the actual size of the eggs)
6 large eggs
For boiling taralli
A large pot of water for boiling taralli
1 tablespoon of salt to add to the boiling water
Directions
o Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
o Bring a large pot of water to boil.
o Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat eggs.
o Add oil. Mix well. Add salt.
o Add flour a little at a time (preferably by hand) until you have a soft but malleable dough (It should resemble a "cavatelli" dough). [N.B. Mrs. Rosina Melfi notes that over-mixing does more harm than good. In fact, she does not knead the sweet taralli dough as some cooks do, as she has found that kneading does not help the process of making a good Molisani-style taralli. She also avoids the use of baking powder in her sweet taralli dough, as this puffs up the taralli when they are placed in the boiling water, causing the circular-shaped taralli to break up.]
o Lightly flour the wooden board on which the taralli dough will be worked on [N.B. A taralli dough that has the right consistency is so malleable that it needs very little, if any extra flour, for it to be shaped on the wooden board.]
o Roll the dough in a cylinder shape (looks a bit like a biscotti log).
o Cut pieces of dough about 4 inches by 5 inches.
o Roll out the dough and shape into taralli-style "ropes" -- about 9 inches long and 1/2 inch in diameter.
o For the traditional Molisani taralli stick the two ends of the ropes together, making a doughnut shape. Or, you can also keep the taralli-ropes as they are (This is not the traditional form, but is the form that the contributor, Mrs. Rosina Melfi, a first-generation Italian-Canadian, often uses).
o Place two or three taralli at a time in the salted water and boil for 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place the taralli on a linen or cotton napkin to usurp excess water.
o Repeat the process until all the taralli are boiled.
o Score the taralli. For the round-shaped taralli one can try to cut with a sharp knife the entire length of the taralli (but if one can't manage to do it, that's O.K. -- just make little slits into the taralli here and there). For those taralli that have been kept as 9 inch long ropes, score about 7 inches of each rope, keeping an inch on both ends un-scored.
o Place the boiled taralli in the oven directly on the middle rack (a cookie sheet is not necessary).
o Cook until golden brown -- about 20 minutes.
o Cool.
o Serve them fresh. These taralli dry quickly. It's best to store them them in a cellophane bag. If a cellophane bag is not available, you can keep them in a plastic bag, but while this storing method will keep them soft, it will remove the tarallis' mild crunch (Not a good thing).... Like everything home-made, sweet taralli should be eaten as soon as possible.
Notes
Mrs. Rosina Melfi noted that prior to World War II home cooks differentiated between "taralli" and "biscotti con sale." At that time, "biscotti con sale" were considered high-end taralli as their dough was kneaded at length and the taralli dough was not kneaded at all. Also, biscotti con sale were flavored with fennel seeds, but taralli were not [For more information on this subject see "Biscotti con Sale, Version I"]. In the 1930s taralli were shaped as circles and "biscotti con sale" were shaped as half-bows. Back then people used the word taralli to describe those that had been flavored with salt as well as those that had been flavored with sugar. The recipes for the two types of taralli were identical, except for the addition of sugar and/or salt.... Photo: Mary Melfi. |
