Food Lover's Odyssey

Nutella filled Venetian Frittelle for World Nutella Day & Carnival

 

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Today is the international holiday, World Nutella Day, hosted by Michelle from Bleeding Espresso and Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy.  Six years ago "with a dream and a spoon" they deemed February 5th the Nutella Day holiday and history was made.  So popular this holiday is, they've even made a book about it.

 

For the last three years I've been participating in the celebrations, not only by eating spoonfuls of Nutella, but also by making something sweet and even sharing the story of my first taste of Nutella. This year the Nutella holiday fell on the same weekend as the start of Carnival in Venice. I couldn't resist making these fried Carnival treats and filling them with the chocolate and hazelnutty goodness - Nutella!

 

 

Frittelle in Venice

 

During the Carnival season, you'll find pastry shop windows in Venice full of the various kinds of frittelle - with raisins & pine nuts, filled with pastry cream or cream chantilly, and apple fritters.  Only once last year during Carnival did I see frittelle filled with Nutella; it was on my food walk with Monica.  But once I saw them, I knew they would be the treats I made for this year's celebration.  Here's the recipe, adapted from the traditional recipe in the cookbook, Venice Tradition and Food, one of the many cookbooks I've brought home from my travels.

 

 

 

 

Frittelle Veneziane filled with Nutella
Adapted from Venice Tradition and Food by Pino Agostini, Alvise Zorzi & Luca Steffenoni

(Makes about 24 frittelle)


3 ½ cups (500 grams) "00" flour**
3 ½ ounces (100 grams) sugar, plus more for garnishing the frittelle
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 ¾ cups whole milk, divided in half, plus more if needed
1 ½ ounces (40 grams) yeast
6-8 cups peanut or grapeseed oil (or another oil with a high smoking point) for frying
1 large jar (26 ounces) Nutella

 

**NOTE: "00" flour is the best flour to use to get light and airy frittelle. If you cannot find "00" flour, you can use 300 grams of cake flour and 200 grams of all-purpose flour as a close substitute.

 

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt.  Stir the eggs and half of the milk together and add it to the flour mixture.  Whisk together gently just until combined.  Warm the other half of the milk and add the yeast, stirring until the yeast is dissolved.  Add the milk and yeast mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until all the ingredients are combined. The dough will be quite loose/wet. Don't try to dissolve all the lumps in the dough, or you will overwork the flour causing the frittelle to be dense and heavy. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise for about 5 hours when it should have doubled in size.

When the dough is ready, stir it again.  It should still be very loose and sticky.  If it's not, add a little more milk. 

In a heavy pot for frying, heat the oil to 365° F (180° C). Spoon the batter, scooped into 1 1/2 inch balls, into the oil. (I used an ice cream scooper, spraying it with non-stick cooking spray).  Fry until the frittelle are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Don't overcrowd your pot, or you will reduce the temperature of the oil, and they will not cook properly.  I fried 5 frittelle at a time in my large pot.

Remove the frittelle with a slotted spoon and place on a plate covered with paper towels to drain.  Once they've cooled enough to handle, roll them in granulated sugar.  Once you've fried all the frittelle, poke a hole in the tops of them.  Fill a pastry bag fitted with a round tip with Nutella and pipe Nutella into each frittelle.  They should be eaten while they are still warm.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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Happy Nutella Day!  What is your favorite way of eating Nutella and/or your best recipe with Nutella?

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Related Posts:

Gianduja and Nutella Cheesecake for World Nutella Day 2010

Nutella Love Cakes (Flourless Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake with Nutella Ganache) for World Nutella Day 2011

Italian Hot Chocolate Recipe and Carnival in Venice

Frittelle, Hot Chocolate and Costumes - Welcome to Carnival in Venice

Tasting Venice - A Food Tour with Moncia Cesarato

Favorite Scenes and Costumes from Carnival in Venice 2011

Gianduja Budino and a Chocolate Pass in Turin

History of Chocolate in Turin - Gianduja and Much More

 

 

Favorite Scenes and Costumes from Carnevale 2011 in Venice in Photos

 

 

Carnival 2011 in Venice is over. The costumes, the masks, the balls, parades, parties and frittelle are all finished until next year. All that remains is confetti in the streets; that and the memories. Now it's time for the lenten fast. Ha! I saw many people breakfasting on frittelle still this morning. So much for that fast. In case any of you want to start planning for next year, Carnival in Venice 2012 will be from February 11 to 21, 2012.

Here are my favorite scenes from this year's Carnival in photos. Enjoy!

Martedi Grasso - Fat Tuesday in Venice

 

Fat Tuesday in Venice, and "Ogni scherzo vale" (Every trick/prank is ok) is the saying for today. Think of the U.S. holidays Halloween and April Fools Day put together and that is Martedi Grasso in Venice. The entire city is on holiday and celebrating in each person's own way. Pastel-colored confetti carpets the streets and groups dressed in theme-coordinated costumes sing as they march down the calle in Venice. I've seen leprechans, a deck of cards, tellytubbies, and many Disney-themed costumes especially Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

 

Carnevale Stage in St. Mark's Square

 

Spraying and Being Sprayed with Shaving Cream

 

Coffee in Costume in St. Mark's Square

 

Teens as Tellytubbies

 

The more fancy costumes in the Square

 

 

St. Mark's Square is party central with both young and old dressed and having fun. Several of the youngsters' pranks were quite harmless, only a little confetti thrown around, and some spraying of silly string and shaving cream. I've only been doused with a few handfuls of confetti. I was expecting worse. Actually, the kids who were spraying the shaving cream were very careful to get it only on each other.

 

Besides St. Mark's Square, Campo San Polo had its own festivities for the day and previous weekend with an ice skating rink set up and vendors from many other regions in Italy selling their food. My lunch consisted of a porchetta sandwich from Tuscany, olives and mozzarella from Puglia and almond paste cookies from Sicily.

 

Ice Skating in Costume in Campo San Polo

 

Porchetta from Tuscany

 

Sausage from Piedmont

 

Cheese from Piedmont

 

Food from Puglia

 

Tonight Carnevale and Martedi Grasso festivities will end with a candlelit parade along the Grand Canal at midnight. I'll have photos from that parade (hoping they come out) later tomorrow.

Tasting Venice - A Food Tour with Monica Cesarato

 

Another absolutely gorgeous day in Venice, and I had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon with Monica Cesarato, a Venetian and Venetian food afficianado. Monica writes a blog about Venice and owns and runs the Faronhof bed and breakfast, outside of Venice. She also is one of the two people who run Cook in Venice, where they offer Venetian cooking courses and food tours in Venice. Our plan for the afternoon was to eat a lot of cicheti. The day was so warm and sunny, we veered off course a little, walking along Zattere and stopping for a gelato (yes, it was that warm). Instead of just cicheti, I learned a lot more about the food in Venice.

 

 

 

Venetian Carnival Treats

Since it is Carnival time, we did a lot of talking about the fried foods treats of Carnival. I have seen the round "doughnuts"(frittelle) in five different variations. The three most typical are alla Veneziana (with rum soaked sultanas and pine nuts), filled with pastry cream, and filled with Zabajon (zabaglione). I've also seen them filled with cream chantilly (sweetened whipped cream). On our walk, we also found some filled with Nutella. There were also sliced apple rings dipped in frittelle batter and fried that I found at Tonolo Pasticceria. Lastly, there are Kraffen. These come from Austria and stayed in Venice after the Austrians left.

Fritelle with Zabaglione, Venetian Style, and with Pastry Cream

 

Fritelle with Nutella

 

Kraffen - (came with the Austrians) filled with pastry cream

 

Fried Apples Dipped in the Frittelle batter before frying

 

 

Venetian Sweets

On our walk, Monica also gave me a lesson on some of the other sweets that fill the pastry windows in Venice. One thing I noticed was that the same cookie were called different names in different pasticcerie windows. The Venetian dialect is still very strong in the city, and that's the reason for the two types of spelling for the same foods.

Zaletti (also Zaeti) Cookies

These cookies that are between are a sort of crunchy cake are made with corn flour, which gives them their yellow color. The name comes from Venetian dialect for yellow.

 

Bussola (also Bussolai) Cookies from Burano

Bussole are ring shaped shortbread cookies, with a little lemon zest added, and come from the island of Burano. I also saw these cookies with little chocolate chips in them. Monica told me she was a purist when it came to recipes, so I think she might not approve of the chocolate chip filled cookies, but they looked good this chocolate-chip cookie loving girl.

Pinza (also Pincia) - A kind of Bread Pudding

Monica explained Pinza as a kind of a bread pudding, made with corn flour, where you put whatever you have leftover into the mixture. This pinza had sultanas. She also suggested I buy a Venetian cookbook, A Toea coi Nostri Veci. It's traditional Venetian food. The only problem is that the book is written in Venetian dialect. (Monica, I'll be emailing you frequently for help ;-) I bought the book and plan to make and share several recipes from it.

 

Tiramisu

Of course, there is Tiramisu. We had a nice discussion about this dish, which is actually from Treviso (not Venice, but nearby). Monica, being the purist, said you cannot call it Tiramisu unless the eggs are raw. I knew I took liberties with my recipe, making a French bombe and cooking the eggs by whipping in cooked sugar, but she also didn't like my idea of adding melted chocolate to the espresso. Oh well, I might have to change the name of my recipe and make a new "original" version of tiramisu here.

 

Cicheti (cicchetti) and Ombra

Cicheti and Ombra are all the rage now, but at one time the person who went out for an ombra was considered a wino. Ombra means shadow. Legend has it that the little tumblers of wine that go with the finger food, known as cicheti, gets its name from the old wine sellers. They would move their barrels/carts to be under the shade, keeping the wine cool. Ombra can also be the "shade" or small bit of wine you get in those small tumblers.

Cicheti is another word that I've seen spelled two different ways. Monica let me know that cicheti (pronounced chee-keh-tee) is the Venetian spelling and cicchetti is the Italian spelling. Both are correct, and both are used throughout the city. We had cicheti at La Cantina Carbonera Vecia. Monica also gave me a list of other cicchetterie that she likes. I'll have more for you soon on all the cicheti I've been tasting.

 

Chocolate and Hazelnut Gelato from Nico

 

Carnival

During our walk, we also talked about Carnival in Venice. Monica reminisced that when she was younger everyone would be in costume. It's dress up for people of all ages. There were less of the extravagent costumes - those are furnished by many of the costume and mask stores in the city who pay the wearers to "pose" around St. Mark's Square. Not everyone was dressed up, but all ages were definitely participating.

One of the more extravagent costumes riding in a gondola

 

Adults in Costume on a Bridge in Venice

 

 

The youngsters posing and celebrating Carnival with confetti

 

Monica's personality is quite the opposite of the devil Carnival costume she had

 

Thanks again Monica for a wonderful afternoon and for all the information on Venetian food and Carnival in Venice!

 

 

 

Related Posts:

Frittelle, Hot Chocolate and Costumes - Welcome to Carnival in Venice

Snow one Day, Sun the Next - Carnival 2011 in Venice

Martedi Grasso- Fat Tuesday in Venice

Favorite Scene's and Costumes from Venice's Carnevale 2011in Photos

Italian Hot Chocolate

Italy in Chocolate at Turin's CioccolaTo Festival

Eurochocolate Perugia - Italy's Biggest Chocolate Festival

Cicheti and Ombra - Little Tastes of Venice

Best Ways to Savor Venice

A Lesson in Venetian Mask Making

Sfogi in Saor - Venetian Style Sole in Agrodolce

Tiramisu

Snow One Day - Sun the Next - Carnevale in Venice

 

What a difference a day makes. If ever that statement was true, it was today.

Yesterday, I walked outside to this. Snow!! Let me tell you this California girl was COLD! (So cold, I started having second thoughts about coming to Venice during this time of year.) I walked through the snowfall to San Marco's Square early in the morning hoping to find a few costumed people to photograph. There was no one but others like me, camera in hand, shivering and sad.

 

Snow one day in Venice

 

Today, I walked outside and the sun was shining. Yesterday, I had four layers of clothes, a coat, two scarves (wrapped so tight that one wrong move and I might have hung myself), gloves, and ear muffs. Today, two layers was a little too warm. I even got crazy and left the ear muffs and gloves at home.

 

 

Sun the next day

 

When I got to San Marco at 8:30am, (now my daily morning ritual along with a frittella for breakfast), I was late. Crowds had already formed around the posers in costume. However, we had so many more posers today to photo. This was the Carnival that I remember from four years ago, a party in the square. Some decked out in elaborate costumes and some with only a mask. All of us making merry for the festivities.

Today may have been the most beautiful day I've ever spent in Venice. I'm so glad I came. Like they say, what a difference a day makes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems many of you enjoyed the photos of costumed Carnival-goers as much I enjoyed taking them, so I'ved added some more to this post.

 

 

 

 

Related Posts:

Frittelle, Hot Chocolate and Costumes - Welcome to Carnival in Venice

Italian Hot Chocolate and Carnevale in Venice

Cicheti and Ombra - Little Tastes of Venice

Best Ways to Savor Venice

A Lesson on Venetian Mask Making

Sfogi in Saor - Venetian-Style Sole in Agrodolce Sauce

Best Places to Kiss in Italy

 

 

 

 

 

Fritelle, Hot Chocolate and Costumes - Welcome to Carnival in Venice

Carnival in Venice. I’m here! I still have no exact knowledge of the time. Right now, I only know that it’s night because it’s dark outside. Three plane rides later and crossing at least five time zones on little sleep, somehow I still managed to wake up early enough to get out and about as the kids were going to school this morning.

“Get to St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge early in the morning. That’s when many of the costumed Carnevale-goers will be out for photos." That’s what a few people told me and what I did. Actually, because the clock on the TV in my apartment is one-hour fast, I arrived in the square earlier than planned, around 7:30am. I and a group of maybe 20 others had the costumed posers and Saint Mark’s square all to ourselves. Well almost, there were hundreds of pigeons to annoy keep us company.

 

After some photos, I needed to warm up. My fingers were blue. Sometimes my legs felt as though they were frozen, too, and wouldn't move. It’s not snowing, but the wind is blowing through Venice’s campos faster than those pigeons will swarm on the smallest dropped crumb.

Breakfast was a cioccolata calda at Il Café on Campo Francesco Morosini. Yes, that same hot chocolate that inspired this Italian hot chocolate recipe. Later some fritelle from Pasticceria Ballarin. Fritelle seemed to be the breakfast of choice for everyone. I’ve found 3 varieties. The traditional Fritella Veneziana with raisins and pine nuts and rolled in granulated sugar. There are also fritelle alla crema (with pastry cream) and fritelle alla zabaglione (with Sabayon). If the sugar high from the hot chocolate wasn’t enough, the fritelle (one traditional and one with crema) certainly gave me the energy to brave the cold again. My preference, so far, is the one filled with pastry cream. I’ll do more testing tomorrow, and am hoping to find more varieties, say a chocolate pastry cream filled one.

 

Later in the day, I went back to Saint Mark’s. This time the piazza had many more photographers, ranging in expertise from those using their phones to professional photographers with foot-long lenses. The professionals even went so far as to give posing commands to those in costume. It was very much like some crazy photo shoot. With each new costume that arrived on the stage that was St. Mark’s Square, a group of camera-clad fools people (me included) swarmed around them and started clicking. Then another new costume would appear and the group with cameras would race from one to the next. George Clooney might even go unnoticed by papparzzi in favor of an even more extravagent costume.

I had to laugh, and agree, when I heard one Italian walking through the square, call it pazzesco (crazy). In any case, after 300 hundred photos (yes, it’s only my first day here), I’m pretty happy with all of the photos I have. Fried treats, thick hot chocolate and some awesome photos, yep, quite a nice welcome to Carnevale a Venezia!

I’ve shared a few of my favorite photos with you today. At the end of Carnevale, I’ll post a slideshow with all of them.

 

Italian Hot Chocolate at Carnevale in Venice

 

The best hot chocolate I've ever had was during Carnevale in Venice. The thick Italian hot chocolate is so dense that it verges on being a pudding, and Carnival in Venice is where I first tasted this type of hot chocolate.

 

We arrived for our Carnevale weekend in Venice late at night and took a vaporetto from Piazzale Roma to the Accademia stop. It was my first non-summer vist to Venice, and the city seemed deserted. As we passed the Erberia (near the Rialto bridge), there were a few sounds of laughter and human existence. After we passed the Rialto bridge, there was no one, no gondole on the lagoon, and the only sound was the rumbling of the vaporetto motor as it poked along the Grand Canal. There was a light fog that sat just on the water's surface. It seemed that the ghosts of Carnevale's past were rising to the surface to welcome us to Venice. The black night, the only lights - those bouncing on the water, the buildings - at the same time, both exotic and decaying, the fog, and the silence created an atmosphere both enchanting and eerie.

During the day, the atmosphere was one of only merriment. From early in the morning to late in the night, the streets were filled with elaborately costumed and masked partygoers. Always silent but showing their willingness through gestures, they gladly stopped for anyone asking to take a photo. As we wandered through Venice, locals offered us and other visitors mulled wine and fried treats. Saint Mark's Square was celebration central, and a grand stage was set up for the many costume parades and shows that took place day and night. Strings of lights decorated the narrow calle around the square. At night, the lights twinkled overhead and danced below in the waters of the canal to add to the festive mood. It was also normal to see these masked partygoers riding gondole or on the vaporetto. Festivity, fantasy, and frivolity; that is Venice during Carnevale.

 

 

Venice in winter is also COLD. The chill, a cold wet one from the fog, seemed to seep through our many layers of clothes. We found a cafe near Saint Mark's to take a break from the cold and also found Italian hot chocolate. The menu was filled with at least 15 versions of hot chocolate - dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, with any kind of liqueur that you wanted, etc. etc. I got the dark and my friend the white. At the time, we were both living in Paris, so we were more than familiar with the hot chocolates of Angelina, LaDuree, Cafe Flore, and the rest, but this was oh so different. Instead of drinking it, it was so thick you could almost eat it with a spoon. Almost that is, it was still creamy and fluid enough to drink, and we drank in the hot and creamy chocolate. During the entire weekend, we made daily stops at the cafe for our hot chocolate break.

After we returned, I did some research to find that this quasi-pudding drink was the typical hot chocolate of Italy. You can find it in any cafe in Italy during the winter. I've since found it even in France and Prague, going by the name of "Italian hot chocolate" on menus. (Prior to Venice, I didn't fully understand the meaning of the name on the menu.) The secret is to use a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it. Using the best quality chocolate is also key.

This hot chocolate and Carnevale in Venice will forever be paired together in my mind. With each sip I think of Venetian masks, elaborate costumes, zeppole (Venetian donuts), parades, and the lagoon in winter - misty and magical. After the recipe for the hot chocolate, I've added a video of photos of my Carnevale in Venice. In the time it takes you to drink a cup of hot chocolate you can take a little trip to Venice.

Carnevale di Venezia 2011, is from February 26 to March 8, 2011. The cafe where we had our first Italian hot chocolate is in Campo St. Stefano. It has yellow tablecloths and dark wood trim around the entrance, and no name other than Cafe.

 

 

Italian Hot Chocolte - Cioccolata Calda

(Makes 4 servings)

1 cup whole milk, separated in 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 1/2 ounces high quality dark chocolate 70%, finely chopped

About a cup of whipped cream, optional

 

Combine the 3/4 cup milk, cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat until it starts to bubble around the edges. While the milk mixture is heating, whisk together the 1/4 milk and the cornstarch until it is smooth. Once the milk mixture starts bubbling around the edges, add the milk and cornstarch mixture to it and whisk until it's heated through. Add the the chocolate and whisk together until it's smooth, hot and thick enough to coat a spoon. Pour into mugs and serve with whipped cream if desired. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you'd like a little liqueur flavor add 1 1/2 tablespoons of your favorite liqueur to the hot chocolate right before pouring. I love Baileys Irish Cream or Kahlua.

Related Posts:

Favorite Scenes and Costumes from Carnival in Venice 2011

Martedi Grasso - Fat Tuesday in Venice

Fritelle, Hot Chocolate and Costumes - Welcome to Carnival in Venice 2011

Italy in Chocolate at Turin's CioccolaTo Festival

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Chiacchiere - Fried Sweets for Carnival in Italy

The Italian Teacher, The Friend and a Magical Chocolate Kahlua Budino

Eurochocolate Perugia - Italy's Biggest Chocolate Festival

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A Lesson on Venetian Mask Making

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