Tarallini Pugliesi

Our Dallas weather for the week is a temperature of 25°F (-4°C) with freezing rain, sleet, snow, and hail for four to five days.  The towns here don't have snowplows or sand/salt trucks and we sit at home until the freeze is over and the roads are once again safe to travel on.

Weather outside

While we're sitting looking out at the cold and snow, writing blogs about beautiful, sunny, warm Mediterranean weather in Cinque Terre, we think of ways to create a little of that here.  We open the cookbook Italian Street Food, and spot a recipe for tarallini pugliesi.  We discovered taralli in Italy several years ago and have been purchasing them on occasional shopping trips to a local Eataly.  These treats are a great snack or accompaniment to a glass of wine. The tarallini pugliesi are small taralli typical of Puglia on Italy's Southern Adriatic coast and are made with fennel seeds, but can also be made with chili flakes or pepper.  The tarallini are both boiled and baked, making them quite crisp and tasty.

Store purchased, home made

We combine flour, dry white wine, olive oil, sea salt, and fennel seeds in a mixer until the dough is smooth and soft.  Then, taking 1/2 ounce (15 gram) balls of dough, we roll each ball into a 4 inch (10 cm) stick and join the two ends to make a circle.

Making circles from the dough

The dough rings are cooked in water for about a minute, 6-8 at a time, until they float to the surface.  They are then removed with a slotted spoon and spread on a tea towel to drain any excess water.

Boil and dry

We then transfer the dough rings from the tea towel to a wire rack and let them sit in a cold oven with the door slightly open for a least 8 hours.

Sit in the oven for the day (or overnight)

After their day of rest, we place the rings on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake them for half an hour at 200°C (400°F).  After baking, we cool them on a wire rack, open some wine, and have a snack.

Bake and cool

Snacks are ready!

Delicious!  Great tastes and memories of Italy and Cinque Terre!  We're going to have to make these every week or two!