Cannoli

Cannola 

• 800 g (32 oz) flour

• 150 g (6 oz) lard

• oil

• 4 eggs

• 1 dl (3 fl oz) muscatel or white wine

• 75 g (3 oz) sugar

• a pinch of salt

• a pinch of vanilla

• ricotta cream

• candied orange peel or cherries

 Put the flour onto a work surface, making a hollow in the middle and place the lard, sugar, white or muscatel wine and the eggs. Mix together, kneading well until a firm dough forms. Leave to rest for about 1 hour. Roll out so that it is quite thin and cut out circles of about 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter. These circles are to be rolled around 12 cm (5-inch) long tubes (tin or reed), which have been greased with oil. In a large, deep saucepan, deep fry the snaps until they are golden. Leave to cool. Remove the snaps from the tubes. Fill with ricotta cream (see recipe), dust with icing sugar and garnish with candied orange peel or cherries. 

Variation: coat the inside of the snaps with melted chocolate so that the ricotta does not make them too soggy.