Fritole. Italian fritters

How to make fitrole, the Italian fritters .

In Spain the dessert recipes for Carnival and Easter focus on the ears or flakes   or   the traditional fritters, classic throughout the year.

Starting from the classic wind fritters , and going through its apple or chocolate variants, to those typical of some regions of Spain such as carnival crespillos or fritters , it is clear that it is a sweet with a great tradition in our country.

But not only in Spain we enjoy this type of sweet, in Italy, specifically in Venice, they have Carnival fritters with a long history within their traditional sweet repertoire.

It is a different recipe for fritters by adding raisins and pine nuts to its ingredients, even so its flavor, texture and procedure are very similar to our traditional fritters.

If you love fritters and you want to prepare a different sweet to surprise yours, do not forget this Venetian recipe, fritters .

Preparation of the Fritole or Carnival fritters

1. In a cup we put the grapes to soak in the sweet wine and in another cup with the warm milk, we dilute the fresh yeast.
2. In a bowl mix the flour with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the yeast milk, the egg and the yolk, the beer and the grated orange and lemon zest.
3. We mix well with some rods until we have a dense and homogeneous cream.
4. Cover with transparent paper and let the mixture sit for 1 hour in a warm place. I always use the oven warm and off to make the fermentations.
5. Drain the raisins and add them to the bowl of the dough that will have already fermented. Add the grappa or pomace brandy and the pine nuts and mix well with a fork.

Frying and final presentation of the fritole

1. We heat abundant oil to fry and, with the help of two spoons we add, to the very hot oil, the portions of dough to fry.
2. We fry on both sides, controlling the temperature of the oil, to prevent them from browning too much on the outside, leaving us with a raw interior.
3. We remove to a source with kitchen paper to remove excess oil and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

With a minimum work we will have some great fritters, in the purest Italian style.

Perfect for both a carnival dessert and a snack at any time of the year.

You can see in this step by step how to prepare this recipe for carnival fritters or fritters , I am sure you will prepare them on many occasions.

Origin and curiosities of these Italian fritters

• Since the Renaissance, in Venice, fritole have been considered the traditional sweets typical of the Carnival period. In the 16th century, Pope Pius V’s private cook included this recipe in his culinary treatise, Opera.
• A century later, the historic Marangoni said that fritola was the national dessert of the State of Veneto and the queen of popular pastry art in Venice.
• As you can see it is a sweet with history and tradition, strongly rooted in Venetian culture. In the 17th century, the manufacturers of fritoles, the fritoleri , became an association in which each member took care of part of the work.
• The position was hereditary and it survived until the 19th century. Although the original fritters were born in Venice, they soon spread throughout the region, thus reaching variations in their preparation.