Sicilian Cassadedde

Growing up as a child I remember my mom together with my nonna and aunts making the traditional Sicilian Cassadedde.  This pastry is well known in the community of a small Town called Vita in Sicily, Province of Trapani.  It's an Italian turnover filled with ricotta cheese.  It was fun making these pastries as a child.  Sometimes for fun we would fill them with just dough and the joke was on the person who grabbed that one.  Little things like this brought family together.  Here is the recipe for those who would like to make them. 

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup shortening

1/8 of espresso

1 large egg slightly beaten

1/2 tsp., vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp., cocoa powder

Mix with white wine.

Vegetable Oil for frying

3 cups Ricotta cheese (drained)

1 lemon (grated finely)

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Plate with granulated sugar

In a large bowl, cut in the shortening into the flour until it resembles small peas.  Add the cocoa powder and blend with hands.  Make a well and pour in the slightly beaten egg, vanilla extract and espresso and about 1/4 cup of wine and stir with fingers until dough forms into a ball, not too sticky and not to hard, and easy to manage.  Then turn dough onto a board and knead for about 5 minutes.  You could make them right away or you could refrigerate the dough overnight to make them next day.  Remember to leave dough (if refrigerated) 1 hour before starting.  Or you could freeze the dough up to 1 week.

Cut dough into 2 inch slices and pass each slice through pasta machine, starting at Dial No. 1 to No. 6.  Place dough onto working board.  Starting from bottom of lasagna dough, place 1 tbsp of ricotta filling (see recipe below) about 2 inches from edge and roll dough over filling to cover it.  Press firmly to form a turnover.  Cut with pastry cutter (with fancy ridges) and then press edges of turnover with fork to ensure complete closure.  Place on a towel and cover them before frying.  Complete procedure with remaining dough.  When all turnovers are complete, poke them with a toothpick on both sides before frying and cover.

Pour about 5 cups of oil into heavy bottom saucepan and heat at medium for 20 minutes. Drop 3 turnovers at a time and fry until golden on both sides.  Remove with slotted spatula onto a paper towel and immediately roll them with granuated sugar and place them on a tray.  Once all turnovers are fried and sugar coated, you may eat them right away.  Very delicious warm and cool them and refrigerate and then serve.  Enjoy.

Ricotta Filling:

3 cups Ricotta (drained)

1 grated lemon peel

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Blend all of the 3 ingredient in a bowl with a blender until smooth.