Anyone who has been to Sicily is familiar with the bevy of treats this glorious island has shared with the rest of the world. Sicily is known for arancini, pesto Trapanese, caponata, and most notably the sweet, crunchy dessert – the cannoli.
When I first traveled through Sicily, my mind and tastebuds exploded with all the island provided. Every seaside town offered up a mix of Italian seasonings crossed with North African spices for otherworldly flavor combinations. The interior exploded with golden fields of wheat that turned into slurp-worthy spaghetti at bustling restaurants.
But with every stop, there inevitably would be room for cannoli. Places like I Banchi in Ragusa where crispy rolls of dough doused with powdered sugar tickled the back of my throat. Or Antica Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica, which is the oldest chocolate factory in Sicily, and offered up hand-sized confections toppling over with pistachios and filled with their perfect cocoa creations.
The cannoli are a wondrous sweet treat because they allow the baker to play in a variety of ways. While the crunchy exterior dough is usually the same, what you fill inside the crust can take on thousands of different iterations.
For this recipe, I wanted to pay homage to my time on the southern island and reveal a recipe that is a timeless class but with a few changes for the health-minded eater. Typically, the cannolo crust is deep-fried, so I decided to use an air fryer instead to cut down on those fatty oils. The good news is that you can also use a convection oven for this recipe in case an air fryer is out of reach.
Enjoy this sweet treat – and try not to eat them all at once (like I did).
Cannoli recipe by Paul Feinstein
Makes 15-20 cannoli shells and filling for 8-10 cannoli
Cannoli Shells
Tools:
4 Cannoli forms
Ingredients:
50 grams of butter
2 cups of AP flour
2 tbs of coconut sugar
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 cup of sweet Marsala wine
1 egg beaten
Extra virgin olive oil
Filling
Tools:
Cheese cloth
Piping bag and nozzle
Ingredients:
2 cups of ricotta cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup to ⅔ cup of powdered sugar
¼ cup of crushed pistachios
Method:
For shells
Partially melt butter and combine with flour in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and cinnamon and continue mixing. Slowly add Marsala wine and continue mixing. Add egg and continue mixing. Use your hands to fully mix dough until all loose pieces are incorporated. Form dough into a ball and cover in Saran wrap. Refrigerate for two hours.
Make filling during this time – see instructions below
Using parchment paper, cut out an oval measuring 4 inches by 5 inches. Lightly flour a surface. Remove dough from refrigerator and cut dough into 4 equal pieces – keep three pieces covered in Saran wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Roll out dough until it’s very thin. Pre-heat air fryer or convection oven to 400° F. Place oval shape over dough and cut out dough pieces with a knife. Stab dough pieces with a fork to create little holes all over. Loosely wrap dough around cannoli form and pinch ends together tightly. Brush cannoli with extra virgin olive oil all over. Place cannoli in air fryer or convection oven for 3-4 minutes. Turn cannoli over at 2 minutes. Cannoli are done when they’re golden brown. Remove cannoli forms and allow cannoli to cool before filling them
For filling
Place ricotta cheese in cheese cloth and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. You can do this over a strainer and use a spatula to mash the cheese to release the moisture. Combine ricotta, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract – use less powdered sugar at first and taste until you find your desired sweetness. Crush pistachios into small pieces and then add and mix thoroughly. Keep extra pistachios for the end. Refrigerate mixture while finishing cannoli shells. Fill piping bag with entire mixture and squeeze into cooled cannoli shells until filled throughout and almost falling out each side. Decorate each side of the cannoli with crushed pistachios. Cover cannoli with more powdered sugar.
Eat and enjoy!