The Taralli with Lard and Pepper, or taralli ‘nzogna e pepe, are best enjoyed with a cold beer and consumed on the rocks of Naples for a moment of pure relaxation!
The ingredients are: flour, I used buckwheat flour for a gluten-free version, yeast (I used sourdough), lard and pepper.
▶Etymologically, there are various hypotheses:
– from Latin with the verb torrere, meaning to roast
– from the French toral, meaning drying rack
– from across the Alps with the term “danal” (pain rond, round bread)
– from the Greek etymon “daratos”, “a kind of bread”.
▶The tarallo is dough wrapped around itself mixed with pepper and adorned with almonds, strictly shelled and baked at high temperatures.
▶Born at the end of the 1700s from the need of Neapolitan bakers to reuse the leftover leavened dough from bread production, after flavoring it with lard (n’zogna) and pepper.
▶Later it was enriched with other ingredients, and in the early 1800s, almonds were also added.
▶In the past, taralli were sold by the so-called “tarallaro” who, with a basket on his shoulders, would roam the city streets selling to passers-by, advertising with the slogan “the good with little”.
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 0.28 oz fresh brewer's yeast (or 96 ml gluten-free sourdough)
- 2.5 cups buckwheat flour
- 0.8 cup rice flour
- 1.6 cups almonds (+ 39 almonds)
- 7 oz lard
- 3 teaspoons pepper
- 1 tablespoon honey (or sugar)
- as needed salt
Steps
If using fresh brewer’s yeast, dissolve it in 1/3 cup of room temperature water.
Add 0.8 cup of buckwheat flour and 1 teaspoon of honey or sugar to the yeast.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
Toast the almonds in the oven at 400°F for 10 minutes.
Chop them roughly.
Add the starter to the almonds, the rice flour, and the remaining 2 cups of buckwheat flour. Then add the lard, 1/2 cup of water, salt, and pepper.
Let rise for 30 minutes.
Shape into pieces weighing 2.8 oz each. For each piece, shape into a rope, fold it over itself, join the ends, and twist to close in a circle.
Wet the 39 almonds.
Place 3 almonds on each tarallo, each within the braid roll.
Place the taralli on a baking sheet, cover, and let rise for 2 hours.
Bake in the oven at 400°F for 25 minutes, then lower to 375°F and bake for another 30 minutes.
Do not be discouraged if you can’t create smooth ropes that coil around themselves, because it’s normal, the gluten mesh is missing, try your best to shape the typical tarallo form.
