Ingredients
1 1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm white wine
1/2 cup melted lard [e.g., Tenderflake]
2 teaspoons salt
1 packet of traditional dry yeast (8 g)
4 teaspoons of pepper
Flour, as much as needed [4 cups or so]
Directions
Follow packet direction for activating yeast.
Add the pepper and salt to four cups of flour.
Mix warm water, warm white wine and activated yeast together. Add melted (but cooled) lard to the mixture.
Combine the liquid mixture with the seasoned flour and work into a bread-like dough. If the dough is too soft, add more flour and if it's not soft enough, add more water.
Knead the dough for about 8 minutes or so.
Shape the dough into a ball, flour it and place it a plastic bag, and then put it in a container with a lid. Cover the container with blanket and let it rest in a warm room for about an hour and a half (or until the dough has risen a little).
Cut the dough into small pieces. Flour each piece (or alternatively, flour the palms of your hands, this will make it easy to work the dough into the shape you want), and roll into a rope -- about 7 inches long and 1/4 inch thick. Form each rope into a circle and pinch the ends together.
Place the taralli on a lightly floured tablecloth. Cover them with another cloth, and let them rest for about an hour or so (The warmer the room, the easier it will be for them to rise).
After the taralli have rested, place them on a cookie sheet.
Place the cookie sheet on the middle oven rack and bake at 350 degree F for about 15 to 20 minutes.*
The taralli are ready when they are golden brown. If one likes taralli crispy they should be a dark golden brown, if one likes them soft and flaky then they should be a golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let them cool before serving.
*
* Please note that everyone has a favorite way of baking taralli. Some place them directly on the oven racks, others use wire racks, and still others use greased cookie sheets or alternatively, cookie sheets lined with silicon baking mats. The type of bake ware used will determine the amount of time needed for the taralli to cook. Some cooks will turn on the broiler towards the end of the cooking time to make sure the tops of the taralli are well-cooked. Other cooks will flip the taralli over. Basically, regardless of the type of bake ware used, the cook will have to keep a close eye on the taralli, as they (in particular, the small-sized ones), burn easily. Trial and error is an important part in cooking any recipe and for taralli it's no different.
Notes
I always assumed taralli had to be boiled and then baked (Well, that's how my mother does her taralli, and she should know!). However, my Molise-born mother, was simply following her region's method of doing taralli. It turns out in the region of Campania and Marche, many of the taralli recipes call for them being placed in the oven directly. In these two regions the taralli are often bite-sized, and so perhaps they require less cooking time? In any case both types of taralli (Those that are first boiled and then baked and those that are baked directly) taste equally good. Of course, the taste differs. In Molise eggs are added to the dough and in other regions, eggs seem to be omitted. This particular recipe calls for no eggs, and uses lard instead of vegetable oil. The end result tastes more like a cracker than a pretzel (Taralli are often referred to as Italian pretzels). In fact, these taralli taste a lot like British-style crackers. Anyway for those who like the taste of pepper, and loathe fennel then this is a recipe to try. Obviously, the ingredients can be modified to suit one's taste. Cooking is all about inventing, or rather re-inventing. The kitchen is the one place one can create order out of chaos. And if one can't (A kitchen can be a rather messy place!), then, at least one can sing, "I did it my way." Actually, cooking is a collaborative art. Most recipes don't come out of nothing -- one is constantly learning how to make this or that from one's friends or relatives. Even professional chefs don't suddenly invent a dish -- sure, they can modify a recipe and place their own stamp on it, but they too depend on what came before them. That's why traditional recipes are so important. They give us the raw material to work with. Hopefully one day this web site will have dozen of regional variations of all the famous Italian foods North Americans so love to eat. Photo: Mary Melfi. |
