It's not just Brazil that celebrates the festivities. In Italy, more specifically in Venice, the tradition of lots of fancy dress parties also exists and delights locals and tourists alike.
In Italy, carnival-goers even have a carnival sweet to call their own.
The "frittelle di Carnevalle“, fried and sugary balls, which can be stuffed or not, compete for space in the hearts of Italian revelers with the famous “Chatter" (“turned underwear”, in Brazil).
Legend has it that the recipe emerged in Venice, in the 18th century, and was an evolution of an Arabic sweet called zelbia, broadcast on Italian soil by the author Giambonino da Cremona. Until then, the sweet only contained flour, egg, milk, sugar and raisins.
Today at fritelle are super typical in Veneto region and they even boast variations from city to city, sometimes filled with fruit, sometimes with cream, and you can even try some filled with that famous chocolate and hazelnut cream.
Another interesting fact is that this sweet frying is proven to be the oldest recorded recipe in Venice.
The success of fried dishes for the date is also justified: in winter, the season when festivities occur in the Northern Hemisphere, the availability of lard has always been much greater. The other reason would be religious.
With Lent approaching, and the restrictions of Ash Wednesday, people really want something really tasty to celebrate the days when there is no fasting or prohibitions.
See typical recipe below:
Carnival pancakes
Ingredients
- 60 grams of flour
- 200 grams of type 00 flour
- 1 egg 90 grams of raisins
- 1 sachet(s) of vanillin
- 1 teaspoon of white rum
- 16 grams of brewer's yeast
- 1 glass(s) of milk
- enough powdered sugar
- How much oil
- Lemon zest
Preparation
Start by soaking the raisins in a bowl with water and a spoonful of rum. Dissolve the yeast in a glass of warm milk and pour the flour, egg, sugar, vanillin and lemon zest into a bowl, mixing everything by hand or with a whisk. Add the glass of warm milk with the dissolved yeast and continue mixing until a homogeneous dough forms. At this point, add the raisins to the dough.
Mix the raisins and dough well and let it rise for at least a few hours, covering the bowl with transparent film. Prepare the oil by heating it in a frying pan with high sides, scoop up small amounts of batter with a spoon and let them drip into the hot oil. Fry a few at a time. When they are swollen and golden on both sides, collect, drain and dry on a plate covered with absorbent paper. Finally, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
