A Ricotta-Filled Recipe For Welcoming Sukkot With Abbondanza
Image by Gayle L. Squires
Living in an apartment twenty stories above the streets of Manhattan can make relating to the holiday of Sukkot and its harvest celebration somewhat difficult. But spending time this summer in Sicily, an island with a dramatic and rich agricultural heritage, re-acquainted me with the agrarian setting in which so many of our holidays originated.
During my week at the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school, we picked lettuces for our salad, drank wine from the vineyard just up the street, and ate ricotta from neighboring sheep. One morning, woken by cooing birds outside my window, I spent a pre-breakfast hour writing in a small pavilion situated in the edible garden just a few stairs from my room. Surrounded on three sides by blue and white striped canvas walls, I scribbled away. As my stomach signaled time to eat, lazy plops of rain hit the bamboo roof. I took it all in — the temporary shelter, the vegetation, the gentle scent of fertilizer — and felt a sense of being tied to the land and at the mercy of the weather. I left my sukkah and ran to the kitchen for coffee.
Our final cooking lesson included cassatelle, fried turnovers filled with ricotta made by the shepherd we had visited earlier in the week. They reminded me of the Sukkot tradition of cooking stuffed foods to signify the abundance of the harvest. Back in my own kitchen, I prepare for the holiday by rolling out dough and wrapping it around soft blobs of cinnamon-scented cheese, frying up the pastries in sputtering oil, and eating them warm with just a dusting of powdered sugar. As I lick my sweet fingers, I’m thankful for the abbondanza of my own life.
Cassatelle (Ricotta-filled turnovers)
Makes about 20
Adapted from Fabrizia Lanza’s “Coming Home to Sicily.” Cassatelle are ricotta-filled turnovers common in the eastern part of Sicily, and Mario, executive chef of the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school attributes their origins to the Arab and Spanish flavors and techniques. The dough uses semolina flour and feels like fresh pasta. Wine in the dough provides both flavor (a bit of sweetness) and texture, helping with the formation of bubbles in the pasties as they fry; dry Marsala works well. The recipe calls for a pasta machine to help knead the dough and roll it out to a uniform thickness. Alternatively separate the dough into five pieces and roll each out into a 9X9 square before cutting out circles.
½ cup white wine (e.g., dry Marsala)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2-4 tablespoons water
2 cups semolina flour
Pinch fine sea salt
1½ cups whole-milk ricotta, preferably sheep’s milk
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for garnish
Vegetable oil for frying (several cups, depending on size of pan)
Powdered sugar, for garnish
** 1. **Combine the wine and oil in a small saucepan and heat until just warm (not hot). You can also use a microwave.
** 2. **Mound the flour on a work surface or in a very large bowl (the latter is my preference), and make a well in the center. Add the wine-oil mixture and salt to the well, and with a fork, carefully incorporate it into the flour. Knead the dough with your hands, adding drops of water until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. The dough should slowly spring back when you poke it with your finger.
** 3.** Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and rest for 30 minutes on the counter.
** 4. **In a small bowl, stir together the ricotta, granulated sugar, and cinnamon. Set aside.
** 5. **Set a pasta machine to the widest setting. Run a piece of dough through the machine about 5 times at this setting, folding the dough in half each time before rolling it again. When the dough is very even, move the dial to the next setting and roll it through 2 to 3 times more, folding it each time. Move the dial to the third setting and roll it through 2 or 3 more times.
** 6. **Lay out the dough on a floured work surface, and cut out circles with a 4-inch round cookie cutter.
7. Place a spoonful of ricotta just off-center, then moisten the edges of the dough with water and fold over. Pinch or use a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
8. Dry. Heat 2 inches of oil in a large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven (higher sides will limit splattering). Drop in a scrap of dough – the oil is hot enough when the dough floats and oil rapidly bubbles around it. Add the cassatelle in batches and fry, flipping occasionally, until deep golden, about 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon or skimmer, transfer to paper towels to drain.
9. Serve. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm.
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