Christmas in Salento doesn’t taste the same without purceddhruzzi. What are they? They are tiny and sweet pieces of fried pasta, covered with honey and colored sprinkles.
For this Christmas if you want to impress your friends and relatives with a traditional regional dessert you are still on time to go and buy all the ingredients and follow our recipe!
THE ORIGINS
The purceddhruzzi are a typical Salento dessert of ancient origin, which has been handed down from generation to generation, since the Middle Ages. The meaning of the name is still a mystery, although probably, it refers to the word “porcelluzzi”, or small pigs, because of their shape and their sweetness!
Despite many variations in the recipe, that depend on the habits of the various families, the purceddhruzzi remain one of the symbol of Christmas in Salento. The thing that make them so special is the presence of extra virgin olive oil, flavoured with the citrus peels (oranges, lemons or tangerines), which make the dough spicy and crumbly.
THE INGREDIENTS
1 kg of flour
1 kg of honey
1 coffee cup of 95° alcohol
200 gr of extra virgin olive oil
150 gr of caster sugar
5 oranges (juices)
For decoration:
flakes of dark chocolate
granules of colored sugar (anisini)
Pine nuts
PREPARATION
Flavor the olive oil with the peel of an orange and smoke on the stove. Pour the flour on a surface and open it in the middle, add the hot olive oil and start to mix everything. When the oil is absorbed, add the sugar and the cup of alcohol and continue to mix the ingredients well. Add the orange juice and knead until you get a soft and smooth dough.
Work the mixture to obtain thin sticks and, with the help of a knife, cut small pieces similar to small dumplings. On a grater turned upside down, pass the pieces of dough one at a time, to give the “purceddhruzzo” a rather rough surface, and place them on a tray.
FRYING
Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan and when it starts to smoke put the orange peel inside. Pour the purceddhruzzi a little at a time, fry them until they are well browned. Drain and dry them and let them cool.
SEASONING
Once fried, dried and left to cool, the purceddhruzzi are ready to be seasoned with honey. Pour half a jar, about 500 gr, into a pan that you have heated before on the stove. When the honey begins to boil, pour a tablespoon of sugar and a little water.
Mix well until the honey becomes liquid. Pour a portion of “purceddhruzzi” and mix with the help of a wooden spoon. Turn for a few minutes as they will have to absorb all the honey. Then, remove them from the pan and place them into the final dish.
DECORATION
Have fun decorating them any way you like: purceddhruzzi is a dish that brings flavor, but also joy and color to the table. Cover them with chocolate chips or pine nuts or, as the tradition teachs us, “anisini” (grains of colored sugar) and eat them! Enjoy your meal and Merry Christmas!
To find out other typical dishes of Salento, look at the following link!
For more info:
info@villesalento.it
328/4617633
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