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Nonna's cicerchiata recipe
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- Cuisine: Italian
- Prep Time: 20 min(s)
- Cook Time: 30 min(s)
Coming from the word “cicerchie”, which are grass peas (chickpea-like legumes); these little pastries are eaten around the time of carnival in February. The pastry has ancient origins from the Umbria region.
Instead of expensive sugar, the people of the land used what was available to them, the raw materials of the land, including honey and nuts.
In my family, they are offered at the table with coffee and good conversation. Instead of a round wreath, my nonna serves them in little mounds, thus, “pile of grass peas”.
Ingredients
3 eggs3 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp oil
1 lemon, zested
300g plain flour
200g honey
200g toasted almonds, cut in half
Preparation
Place the flour on a table as if you were making pasta.Mix the eggs, sugar, oil and lemon zest together.
Add the flour and make a dough.
Cut the dough into strips and then roll into long sausage shapes, about 1cm thick. Cut the dough into small ”gnocchi” squares and then roll into small balls.
Fry the balls in hot oil, drain and allow to cool.
Heat the honey in a large pan, until it cooks and the colour turns to rose.
Add the almonds and pastry balls. Mix for 2 minutes and add some extra lemon zest.
Set into small mounds and serve.
If you enjoyed this Nonna's cicerchiata recipe then browse more Italian recipes, dessert recipes, italian radio recipes, easy recipes, entertaining recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
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