Among the most popular culinary traditions in Italy there are
sweets for the feast of San Giuseppe, Father's Day on March 19
: fried cream puffs in Lazio, Neapolitan zeppole and other southern regions, raviole in Bologna, Sfincie in Sicily.
Many variations, in the filling which is classically custard but can also be ricotta, fried or in the light version in the oven, different shapes but similar origin.
For the zeppole, which has become the greedy symbol of Father's Day, the realization is based on circular choux pastry with a central hole that is stuffed with custard and garnished with sour cherries in syrup.
The cream puff of San Giuseppe, popular in Rome, is based on the same dough, filled with cream but closed and without fruit.
THE STORY OF "SAN GIUSEPPE FRITTELLARO"
There are two most accredited theories.
The first goes back directly to the history of the Holy Family.
In fact, in order to keep Mary and Jesus after the flight to Egypt, Saint Joseph began to try his hand as a traveling fryer as well as a carpenter!
Not surprisingly, in Rome,
St. Joseph is addressed in a sympathetic way as Er Frittellaro
, from a poem from the 1950s written by Checco Durante, which begins exactly like this: "St. Joseph frittellaro so good and so dear (...)". A second hypothesis traces the zeppole back to Roman history and pagan origins. On March 17, in fact, the Liberalia were celebrated, in which the children became adults and, in homage to Bacchus and Silenus, rivers of wine and ambrosia flowed, accompanied by Wheat fritters cooked in boiling lard, ancestors of "our" zeppole. When Father's Day was established in 1968 two days after March 17, on the day dedicated to St. Joseph, the descendants of the ancient Roman fritters became the official dessert of this celebration.
tHE zEPPOLE
origin of the word 'donut' there are no reliable sources: derives from the Latin Serpula (m), or serpent, to justify the rounded shape on itself, or the end block, then turned into ze
ppa, which meant the piece of wood used behind or under furniture when it wobbles.
Another accredited source reports the origins of the name on the streets of Naples: zeppola derives from
'zì Paolo', the name of the Neapolitan fryer alleged inventor of this dessert.
BIRTH OF THE RECIPE
The first recipe for this dessert is found in the theoretical-practical cookery treatise of 1837 by the cook and intellectual Ippolito Cavalcanti.
In the manual, the Duke of Buonvicino prescribes, in rigorous Neapolitan language, the ingredients (flour, water, liqueur, marsala, salt, sugar and oil) to fry this particular pasta which had anything but noble origins.
In Naples, in fact, there were street fryers who, on March 19, set up stalls
outside their shops and sold freshly fried donuts to passers-by, as in the most modern street food.
As for the shape, it was the nuns of the Convent of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples who gave the pasta its characteristic round shape.
The origin, however, is much earlier and even Goethe in the Grand Tour, visiting the Neapolitan capital at the end of 1700 writes: "Today was also the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of all frittaroli, that is, sellers of fried pasta ..."
VARIANTS
Fried donuts and cream puffs filled with cream or ricotta have gone beyond regional origins and are widespread throughout Italy, perhaps with delicious variations.
And pastry shops named after them were also born (La Zeppola in Rome) or e-commerce that offer them in delivery (PuroSud, the e-commerce of Vito Mirko Greco, who for the occasion launched the initiative of ' solidarity 'with no purchase constraint to deliver two free donuts to fathers who, due to the lockdown, cannot receive a visit from their children), while La Pasticceria Grué, also in Rome, will offer them for the occasion in 7 variants including pistachio, chocolate, hazelnut, eggnog.
The reign of the zeppola however remains Naples: the best of the historic pastry shops can be tasted at Scaturchio, Carraturo, Ranaldi in the Spanish Quarters, Poppella alla Sanità, Pintauro in Via Toledo.