I did my best to write the recipe for our castagnole just in time! Our castagnole… I mean, mom’s. 😊

These are the Carnival castagnole she’s been making since I was a child, the classic recipe of our home, which for me is not just a Carnival recipe but also a birthday recipe. Yes, my birthday almost always falls during the highlight of Carnival, so castagnole are almost never missing. There are many photos to prove it; alongside the cake with candles and pastries on the table, there have always been Carnival castagnole, strictly made by mom.

As a child, I didn’t even notice it, for me, it was normal to celebrate with castagnole, also because… they were there even after Carnival ended! Oh, how nice to have a birthday in February! 😃

👇 My Carnival recipes: 😉🎉

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: 6
Cooking methods: Frying
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Winter

Ingredients

14.11 oz all-purpose flour
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp olive oil (or seed oil works as well)
1 tbsp ricotta
1 tbsp anise liqueur (or white grappa)
1 packet baking powder for sweets
lemon zest (a quick grate)
10.58 oz lard (250 g may be sufficient)

Tools

Saucepan

Steps

Before describing the procedure…
Three considerations about the ingredients: speaking with mom this morning, I learned a few details (because when I say I like to cook by eye… who do you think I took it from?):
1. Large eggs are better, so if yours are small, you might want to use one more.
2. You might not need all the flour (also due to point 1), so don’t pour it all at once. If you notice the dough is getting too stiff, leave some flour aside: the dough shouldn’t be hard.
3. The baking powder packet: the recipe calls for the whole thing, but using just half is perfectly fine, maybe even better. 😃
And as a friend says… Go, go, go! because it’s already Shrove Tuesday and we’re here nitpicking about the amount of baking powder!, but I say… 😄
In a bowl, briefly beat eggs and sugar with a fork, add the wet ingredients, then the flour (a little at a time) and the baking powder, and mix everything to obtain a soft mixture. If necessary, add an additional tablespoon of milk.
Fry the castagnole by dropping spoonfuls of the mixture into hot lard.
☝ Tradition dictates that castagnole are fried in lard. And since this year, thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, we have a decent supply of homemade lard, we indulged in frying like they used to. The jars you see in the photo, I purposely left them in the frame to show you. Of course, anyone who doesn’t have lard or doesn’t want to use it can use seed oil (peanut oil is best).
Sprinkle the castagnole with granulated sugar immediately after cooking, as desired.
And eat immediately and voraciously!
They are amazing hot or warm, but delicious even cold.
They can be drizzled with Alchermes, or alternatively… dipped into it. We did it, yes I confess, your honor. 😄 We put a bit of Alchermes in the glass and then dip and bite, and dip and another bite… My goodness, how delicious!!! And, oh, I’m sorry for you, but I didn’t take a photo, we were too busy eating!! 😃
Enjoy!!