For taralli dough

1/4 cup sugar
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

o Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

o Bring a large pot of water to boil.

o Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix sugar and eggs.

o Add oil. Mix well.

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 sweet 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.

According to Mrs. Rosina Melfi, a first generation Italian-Canadian who grew up in Casacalenda in the 1930s, this style of sweet taralli was considered a second-rate version of "biscotti dolci" as the taralli (unlike "biscotti dolci") did not require much kneading. Apparently, in the 1930s "biscotti dolci and "taralli dolci" were not one and the same recipe. Back then "biscotti dolci" took time and effort to make and so were only made for special occasions, while "taralli dolci" were made any old time [For more information on this see Italy Revisited/Taralli, "Biscotti con Sale, Version I]. Apparently, in the 1930s "taralli dolci" were made in a round donut-like shape, while "biscotti dolci" were made in the shape of half-bows. The shape of the treat would indicate whether or not they were plain old taralli or they were the beloved "biscotti dolci." Nowadays most North Americans (and I suspect Italians as well) don't make any distinctions between "biscotti dolci" and "taralli dolci." It seems the recipe name, "biscotti dolci" is no longer in use. Nonetheless, prior to World War II the term "biscotti dolci" was very much in use.... It's interesting to note that the word, "taralli," in Molisani dialect not only refers to the Italian snack food North Americans that have come to love, the word also refers to young men who may think themselves hot, but are, in fact, not hot at all. Apparently, in the 1930s young women would also refer to such men as "taralli that had been soaked in honey" -- an obvious put down as taralli are never soaked in honey.... According to my aunt, Zia Rosina, the word, taralli, may have come to have been used in this derogatory fashion, because back in the 1930s taralli (as previously noted) were low in the food hierarchy. Apparently, when someone baked something and it didn't come out right the townspeople would say, "it looks like a taralli" -- meaning, it doesn't look like much. In a nut shell, taralli were considered second-rate "biscotti con sale" and/or "biscotti dolci...." In any case, the original Molisani-style "sweet taralli" are very different from what most North Americans have come to expect of this snack food. First of all, they are not very sweet, and second of all, they're not crunchy. They taste more like a "holiday bread" than "taralli." The taralli that are currently available in North American grocery shops are more like those that were made (and still are made) in Campania and/or Puglia, rather than what were made (and possibly still are made) in Molise. That said, these Molisani-style sweet taralli may be different from the norm, but they're still very pleasant to eat. Those who don't like their sweet taralli to be "too" dry or "too" sweet might actually prefer this style of taralli dolci to the more famous ones from Bari and its surrounding area.... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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