Zeppole di San Giuseppe

[Baker-Clark]

Greetings,

I teach a course on the food and culture of Italy. One of my students and I are co-learning about Zeppole di San Giuseppe. This is something I have not encountered. And I am always ready and willing to learn. Can anybody provide information on this food which is associated with the Feast of St. Joseph? In addition, can you refer us to other sources of information?

[taylaman]

I am enrolled in a class on the food and culture of Italy. I am interested in learning more about Zeppole di San Giuseppe. I am eager to learn more about this food's history and any additional information about it. Can anybody provide information on this food which is associated with the Feast of St. Joseph? In addition, can you refer me to other sources of information? I very much appreciate any help!

[heidih]

Here is a prior topic on recipes.

[Judith Umbria]

It varies widely from region to region, but if you would like to read about its place in Calabria, Michelle of Bleeding Espresso blog published it. There's a link to her recipe. She blogs from Calabrian village world.

http://bleedingespresso.com/2010/03/i-zippoli-di-san-giuseppe.html

[ambra]

I'm partial to Fritelle di Riso which you get in Tuscany.

[rooftop1000]

When I was working at a deli owned by a Josephine, she bought Dunkin Donuts Cruellars and split and filled them with sweetened ricotta, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. They sold very well

tracey

[roxlet]

Zeppole di San Giuseppe are similare to the street fair zeppole only insofar as both are named zeppole. Zeppole di San Giuseppe are made with a sweetened cream puff type dough, are baked or fried and then filled with a ricotta cream. The ricotta cream is usually topped by a glaced cherry. My father was named Giuseppe, and back mid-20th century, this was a pastry that was only available on or around Saint Joseph's feast day. Part of the tradition was that on that day, you had to pull the ear lobe of anyone named Giuseppe as you kissed them to wish them a happy Saint Joseph's Day.

[Kevin72]

There's a couple of print resources you can use:

Italian Holiday Cooking by Michele Scicolone, and Celebrating Italy by Carol Field. Neither one goes into specific detail on the background of the zeppole themselves but they do give quite a bit of information on the San Giuseppe holiday itself. As others here have said, zeppole changes meaning depending on where you are. Both of these resources, plus Sweet Sicily by Victoria Granof, follow Sicilian traditions for St Joseph's Day, where zeppole most often refer to fried balls of dough tossed with cinnamon and sugar, but if they're stuffed with pastry cream or ricotta, they're called sfince or bigne. But go to Napoli, for example, and stuffed fried dough is called zeppole.

San Giuseppe is the patron saint of pastry chefs, so many of the foods most commonly associated with the feast are sweet and breads and then fried or baked pastries.

[gregorio]

Zeppole di San Giuseppe in Naples are a fried dough similar to pate a choux with crema pasticcera piped on top and an amarena cherry. Only available around the 19th of March (also Father's Day in Italy). The Sicilians make "sfinge" and top them with sweetened ricotta. I've seen them every which way in the US, but in Naples, they are as described above-no discussion!

[Carolyn Tillie]

Here's my review of a version made in San Francisco -- not with pate a choux, but with pizza dough:

When it comes to my fried dough adventures, I am beginning to discover there are two very distinctive avenues of exploration. First, there are the must-try, pre-determined establishments, such as when I happened to be in Seattle and made sure I visited Top Pot, or part of the birthday celebration of going to Frances just for Bacon Beignets. These are very particular destination trips for me in my never-ending search for the epitome of fried dough.

Then there are the surprises — those trips to highly acclaimed restaurants like my visit to Bottega in Yountville and stumbling on the fact that they offer both a savory and sweet fried dough. Or a trip to England where the intent was to search for grouse at an acclaimed gastropub, Harwood Arms, and instead finish an amazing meal with delectable Bramley Apple Doughnuts.

So it was on this cool Monday afternoon. Dashing home from a last-minute appointment, that I realize I had barely eaten a breakfast and lunch was already upon me. Rumblings in my stomach coaxed me to debate the offerings of the neighborhood where I found myself, the corner of Fillmore and California. La Boulange is a standard choice for me as their Niçoise for under $10 is always satisfying. There is a new Mexican which I have yet to try, but I am really not a fan of south-of-the-border flavors. It was just nigh on 11:30 and fortunately for me, there were still seats to be had at the bar at Delfina Pizzeria and a broccoli rabe pizza with Hen of the Wood mushrooms with my name on it.

I wasn’t even that hungry and was only one slice into eating my pizza when I glanced over my shoulder and saw the dessert menu printed on the mirror behind me, “Zeppole de San Guiseppe.” O.M.Y.G.O.S.H. There was to be an unexpected fried dough treat in my future! I confirmed with the waitress what THEY believed Zeppole to be (because I certainly have ordered things called doughnuts before which proved to be anything BUT doughnuts). She held her hands out to start describing the size of the plate, “Zeppole is this large fried dough….” I held up my hand with a knowing smile, stopping her in mid-stence. “Perfect,” I confirmed. “I’ll be packaging up the bulk of my pizza to save room for dessert.”

At Delfina, the Zeppole is created from their famous pizza dough, rolled out extra thin and fried very crisp in an elongated, misshapen form. Dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a Bavarian-style mascarpone cream, this is both incredibly light and delightfully tasty. Delfina serves two to the order, one so large that it spills over the edge of the plate. With the pizza dough rolled so thinly, when fried the subsequent zeppole is full of large air holes making it that much lighter. There is no hint of greasiness and the sweetness is added afterward, with the powdered sugar and the rich, mascarpone-based cream, drizzled atop almost haphazardly. The dessert was served with clean silverware and an additional plate. For me, it was easier to pick up and consume like your standard slice of pizza, with your hands.

The surprise happenstance of stumbling on such an enticing form of fried dough in my own neighborhood was not only happy synchronicity, but also makes Delfina more a destination spot for me in the future. I admit to craving those heavy, cakey fried dough offerings, but to enjoy something so light and different than their heavier counterparts which have been my norm lately, was a special treat.

Pictures on Fried Dough Ho