Empty fried panzerotti, or dough fritters to be filled. I really didn’t know what to call this recipe — halfway between a gnocco fritto and an empty calzone — but in the end I decided: Empty fried panzerotti! This little recipe was born from improvisation, the desire to cook something tasty and the urgency to use up some Greek yogurt that was close to its expiry date. The other day I noticed I had yogurt in the fridge; knowing that this ingredient gives doughs a unique softness, I thought of using it to make a baked product similar to the soft quark focaccia or the loaf made with a bread machine. Once the dough was ready, since it was warm and I didn’t feel like turning on the oven, I decided to fry it, forming many golden, crunchy, soft and delightful fried dumplings, just like panzerotti. We then enjoyed these empty panzerotti, filled both with cured meats and with spreadable creams — this dough for stuffed fritters is indeed versatile and pairs well with both sweet and savory. Let’s go to the kitchen and make these empty fried panzerotti together — you’ll see how wonderful they’ll be! Before that, remember you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).

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Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Rest time: 3 Hours
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Cooking methods: Frying
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

8 1/3 cups type 0 (bread) flour (with at least 12 g of protein)
2 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
as needed sunflower oil (for frying – high-oleic (check the label))
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 24 g fresh yeast)

Tools

Stand mixer
Frying pan

Preparation

To make these delicious fritters to be filled, collect the flour in the bowl of your food processor or stand mixer, add the water, the yeast and the sugar, knead coarsely for a couple of minutes, then let it rest for another 10 minutes. Then add the yogurt, the oil and the salt and knead until you obtain a dough that pulls away from the bowl, smooth, elastic and homogeneous. You can follow the same procedure by hand, but you will need to work the dough a little longer.
Turn the dough out onto the work surface, shape it into a ball, place it in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise until it has fully doubled in size. Times are indicative: if you want fluffy fritters, always wait for proper and complete fermentation.
After about 2–3 hours from the start of preparation the dough should have doubled in volume. Flour the work surface and, without deflating it too much, turn it out again. Roll it out with a rolling pin without mistreating it and obtain a sheet about 3/8 inch thick, then use a pizza cutter to cut geometric shapes: I made diamonds of about 3 to 3 1/8 inches per side. Heat a pan with plenty of oil for frying — I always choose high-oleic sunflower oil (check the package composition); using a good oil with a high smoke point is essential for healthy frying. Drop the pieces of dough into the hot oil (338°F) and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the fritters are golden. Remove them with a skimmer and place them on kitchen paper; once you finish frying, fill them immediately, because while these fritters are good cold, they are wonderful hot or warm.
Split each diamond in half like a sandwich, fill with cured meats, cheeses, or spreadable creams and dust with powdered sugar if desired. These fried dumplings are also delicious eaten plain and rolled in sugar, like the amusement-park-style soft fritters.