History and recipe for the zeppola di San Giuseppe
The zeppola di San Giuseppe (St Joseph’s zeppola) is a classic pastry from Campania that is traditionally prepared on 19 March, Father’s Day and St Joseph’s Day (hence the name). But given its goodness, it is not strange to see it in the windows of pastry shops during the rest of the year as well. It is a kind of fried (or baked) cream puff that encloses a mouth-watering heart of custard and on top of which stands a black cherry in syrup.
A Christian tradition would trace the birth of zeppole back to the flight of the holy family to Egypt. It is said that St Joseph, in order to support Mary and Jesus, had to combine his job as a carpenter with that of a fryer and street vendor of fritters. According to another theory, the anthropological origins of the zeppola date back to the ancient Roman festival of Liberalia, goddess of wine and grain, celebrated on 17 March. In honour of Silenus, companion of revelry and tutor of Bacchus, rivers of wine were drunk and fragrant wheat fritters were fried. What is certain is that the cake only began to take the form we know today in the 18th century. It is said that nuns were the best at preparing them, although it is not possible to say with certainty whether they were first prepared by the nuns of the Splendour and the Cross of Lucca, or instead, by the nuns of St Basil of the Monastery of San Gregorio Armeno.
The first official recipe is found in 1837 in the Treaty of Theoretical-Practical Cuisine by the well-known gastronome Ippolito Cavalcanti. Written entirely in Neapolitan, it reads as follows: “Miette ncoppa a lo ffuoco na cazzarola co meza carrafa d’acqua fresca, e no bicchiere de vino janco, e quanno vide ch’accomenz’a fa lle campanelle, e sta p’asci a bollere nce mine a poco a poco miezo ruotolo, o duje tierze de sciore fino, votanno sempe co lo lanatiuro; e quanno la pasta se scosta da tuorno a la cazzarola, allora è fatta, e la lieve mettennola ncoppa a lo tavolillo, co na sodonta d’uoglio; quanno è mezza fredda, che la può manià, la mine co lle mmane per farla schianà si pe caso nce fosse quacche pallottola de sciore: ne farraje tanta tortanelli come sono li zeppole, e le friarraje, o co l’uoglio, o co la nzogna, che veneno meglio, attiento che ta tiella s’avesse da abbruscià; po co no spruoccolo appuntuto le pugnarraje pe farle suiglià, e farle venì vacante da dinto; l’accuonce dinto a lo piatto co zuccaro, e mele. Pe farle venì chiù tennere farraje la pasta na jurnata primma“.
Some say that the current recipe for zeppola is the work of the confectioner Pintauro (c. 1840), owner of a shop in Via Toledo in Naples that still exists today and already the creator of the much-loved Neapolitan sfogliatella, who, revisiting the ancient Roman fritters and inspired by Cavalcanti’s advice, enriched the dough with eggs, lard and flavourings and then fried them twice, first in boiling oil and then in melted lard.
We now come to the recipe.
Ingredients for about 20 zeppole
1 litre water
100 grams butter
1 kilo 00 flour
10 grams of salt
12-15 fresh eggs
peanut oil
icing sugar
custard
sour cherries in syrup
Procedure
In a saucepan, bring the water with the chopped butter and salt to the boil. Then remove the saucepan from the heat and add the flour, stirring quickly to avoid lumps (also because the flour immediately absorbs them), put it back on the heat over a low flame and let it mix, stirring constantly until a homogeneous mixture is obtained that will come away from the edges of the pan. Now turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. Then pour the mixture into a bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well (only when the first egg is well absorbed will you add the other one). Put the mixture into a pastry bag and form doughnuts on baking trays previously covered with baking paper.
Now for the frying. Prepare two frying pans with a generous amount of peanut oil. In the first one, dip the doughnuts in oil that is not too hot. This first step is necessary for the zeppole to swell to the right size. Then fry them in the second pan in hot oil at 170°/180° and take them out only when they have reached the right fragrance and a nice golden colour. At the end of frying, the dried doughnuts are garnished with cream and black cherries and sprinkled with icing sugar.
