hi there.

There are not so many places in Berlin selling cannoli. So I’m proud to be one of them :-). So what exactly are cannoli? Cannoli are a ricotta-filled crispy dough originated in Sicily. But this weekend a Sicilian girl noted that these cannoli I make aren’t Sicilian. Lol … that’s right, because these are Berlin ones :-)! The original recipe for my ricotta-cream is based on a Neapolitan recipe but adjusted to what kind of ingredients I can get in (at the moment not so cold anymore) Berlin. Normally I serve them by two so that’s why I call them “i due emigranti” :-).

Of course, if you know where, you’ll find plenty of good Italian foods in Berlin, but there’s one thing which is really difficult to find (even for me that I regulary get Neapolitan food packages :-)): it’s tasty creamy ricotta! And you’ll do need a good ricotta for a nice ricotta-filling if you’re doing cannoli.

So how to make a tasty ricotta-cream in Berlin? Easy, think about “Italian American cuisine”, in my case this means adjusting ricotta-cream to the German way of life (thus not finding supernice creamy ricotta). Just for those of you who are interested: the term”Italian American cuisine” refers to the traditions of foods and recipes Italian immigrants brought with them from different regions of Italy when they settled in the United States during the 20’s. These recipes were particularly based on their regional origins in Italy and yet adjusted to the ingredients they could find in the US. And don’t worry I studied anthropology so I should know this kind of stuff :-).

By the way, one of the most well-known Italian American dolci is for sure cannoli which is *surpise surprise* filled with yummy ricotta-cream :-).

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Ricotta-cream

What you’ll need for it:

125 gr ricotta cheese (take the one from your supermarket or if you have very good one leave out the cream)
5 TB cream
5 TB confectioner’s sugar
1 Tb grated lemon zest
2 TB candied fruit (oranges) + candied cherries to decorate if you want to
1 TB chocolate drips

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How you do it:

1 Whip the cream
2 Mix 1 TB confectioner’s sugar, lemon zest, ricotta and candied fruit in a bowl
3 Fold in the cream

Ready!

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To fill the ricotta-cream into the cannoli you can easily use a piping bag. If you don’t have one use a small spoon.