For list of ingredients see Italy Revisited/Recipes/"Pastries"

Wikipedia suggests that "sfogliatelle" (pronounced sofol-j'ah-TEL-e) originated in Naples and "are thought to have been perfected in convents, because their making is so time-consuming." However, some food historians believe sfogliatelli may have had its origins in the Middle East. Apparently, the phyllo dough, often called "millefeulle" in France and "millefoglie'" ("a thousand leaves") in Italy was invented by the Arabs and picked up by Europeans. The traditional stofgliatelle pastries are made with layers of phyllo dough which use rendered pork fat though nowadays some pastry chefs prefer to use butter. The pastries come shaped like shells or cones and are generally filled with orange-flavored ricotta. Stofgliatelle: pastries are possibly Italy's most famous dolce. In North America "stogliatelle" and sfogliatelle ricce" generally refer to one and the same pastry; however, in Italy the word "ricce" is added to "sfogliatelle" to distinquish it from newer and cheaper versions of sfogliatelle which are made with shortcrust pastry dough rather than phyllo dough. The larger versions of sofogliatelle ricce are sold in shops as "lobster tails" because they resemble their shape.... To-die-for "sfogliatelle ricce" are generally available in North American Italian pastry shops though they are rather expensive; recently sfogliatelle ricce can also be bought frozen in big "box-store" though obviously they're not as tasty as the fresh ones. In the 1950s sfogliatelle were served only at weddings, baptisms and other major life celebrations. Nowadays, they can be part of any Sunday dinner. Very few (if any) North Americans make their own sfogliatelle. This is one pastry best left to professionals. However, there are many websites (e.g. www.epicurious.com and www.recipezaar.com) that do have recipes and for the cook who likes a challenge this will definitely provide it. Photo of store-bought stogliatelle ricce: by the contributor.

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