🥐 Sicilian cannoli
Sicilian cannoli are the island's most famous pastry: fried shells filled with sweet sheep's-milk ricotta and decorated with candied orange peel or cherries, chocolate and chopped pistachios. The shell is thin and crackly, the filling smooth and lightly sweet. In Sicily they are filled to order so the shell never turns soft.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ready-made cannoli shells
- 500 g sheep's-milk ricotta, drained overnight
- 120 g icing sugar
- 50 g candied orange peel, diced
- 40 g dark chocolate, chopped
- 40 g pistachios, chopped
- Candied cherries to decorate
Method
- Press the ricotta through a sieve for a silky texture.
- Beat in the icing sugar, then fold in the candied peel and chocolate.
- Chill the filling for at least 30 minutes.
- Just before serving, pipe the filling into the shells, press pistachios into each end and top with a candied cherry.
How to make it lighter
- Choose mini shells — they keep the full flavour at a fraction of the size.
- Reduce the sugar and candied fruit; the ricotta is pleasantly sweet with less.
- Have one cannolo with an espresso rather than a plate of them.
History
Cannoli are traditionally associated with Palermo and Carnival season in Sicily. Their origin is often linked to the island's Arab period, when sugar cane cultivation spread, but no reliable record confirms who first made them. Today they are the emblematic sweet of Sicily and of Italian-American bakeries.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →