Struffoli
| File:Struffoli2.JPG | |
| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Region or state | Naples |
| Details | |
| Course served | Dessert |
| Main ingredient(s) | Dough, honey |
Struffoli also known as Honey Balls (Italian pronunciation: [ˈstruffoli]; Neapolitan: struffule [ˈstrufːulə]) is a Neapolitan dish made of deep fried balls of sweet dough. The dough is used in many Italian sweet treats such as chiacchiere. For struffoli, the dough is formed in to balls about the size of marbles. Crunchy on the outside and light inside, struffoli are mixed with honey and other sweet ingredients and formed into mounds or rings. There are many different ways to flavour them, but the traditional way is to mix them in honey with diavulilli (nonpareils sprinkles), cinnamon, and bits of orange rind. Naming varies by region: in Calabria they are also known as scalilli, and in Abruzzo cicerchiata. They are often served at Christmas and are sometimes served warm.[citation needed]
History
The term comes from the Greek adjective stróngylos (round shape)[1] and, from a linguistic point of view, shares the same root with the Umbrian word strusia, so a common Proto-Indo-European linguistic origin is likely.[2] A boiled pastry called struffoli, together with the associated kitchen utensils, can be traced to Bartolomeo Scappi in 1570.[3]
Its use as a typical Christmas dish also seems to be relatively recent, as Crisci's recipe book The Lamp of Courtier (1634) mentions it but not specifically in relation to Christmas lunch.[4]
A similar dish is described by Archestratus, a Greek poet from Gela in Sicily. It was called enkris (Greek: ἐγκρίς) — a dough-ball fried in olive oil, which he details in his Gastronomy; a work now lost, but partially preserved in the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus, which mentions enkris thirteen times, in various inflected forms.[5] The most complete description of it in the Deipnosophists is a passage that reads:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
πεμμάτιον ἑψόμενον ἐν ἐλαίῳ καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο μελιτούμενον, μνημονεύει αὐτῶν Στησίχορος διὰ τούτων
χόνδρον τε καὶ ἐγκρίδας ἄλλα τε πέμματα καὶ μέλι χλωρόν.
There are cakes, also, called ἐγκρίδες. These are cakes boiled in oil, and after that seasoned with honey; and they are mentioned by Stesichorus in the following lines:—
Groats and encrides,
And other cakes, and fresh sweet honey.[6]
Similar dishes
- Piñonate (Andalusia)
- Gulab jamun (South Asia)
- Croquembouche (France)
- Lokma (Mediterranean basin)
- Pignolata (Sicily)
- Teiglach (Jewish cookies)
- Çäkçäk (Tatar, Bashkir and Central Asian dish)
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Berenbaum, May (2010). Honey, I’m Homemade: Sweet Treats from the Beehive across the Centuries and around the World. University of Illinois Press, pp. 67–68.
- ↑ Scully, Terence (2011). The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco (The Art and Craft of a Master Cook). University of Toronto Press.
- ↑ Crisci, Giovan Battista (1634). Lucerna de cortiggiani. Naples: Domenico Roncaglioli.
- ↑ Perseus Project "Word frequency information for ἐγκρίς", available at: [1], retrieved 27 June 2015
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- Caròla-Francesconi, Jeanne (1995). La vera cucina di Napoli : in 300 ricette di ieri e di oggi. Roma: Newton.
Media related to 
