call them damselfish or tortelli. Do it with the apples or with the semolina. Retouch them with alchermes or Pebble. The dough varies slightly from region to region and even the shape can change slightly, but one thing is certain: le Carnival pancakes they must be crunchy out is soft inside.

Castagnole, tortelli, fritole: the regional variations of pancakes

That of the damselfish is a typical recipe of Emilia Romagna, very widespread also in Liguria and Lazio: theorigin it's a lot ancient, it seems that you are already talking about it in an eighteenth century manuscript. They can also be baked, but fried give the best of themselves. In Veneto, instead, just add Pine nuts is raisin to traditional pancakes to have them fritole. Changing the ingredients a bit, in Lombardy we get the tortelli: to make them you need about 275 grams of flour, eight whole eggs and two egg yolks, 120 grams of butter and 250 milliliters of milk. And then, as for the castagnole, a sachet of yeast, the gratinated peel of a lemon and a pinch of salt. No anise liqueur, however, at most a bit 'of rum.

The pink carnival pancakes

With 200 g of flour, 160 g of sugar, three eggs, the rind of a lemon, a pinch of salt and some alkermes, in Piedmont they are made bignole. These carnival pancakes are distinguished from the others by the crimson color due to the cochineal based liqueur. If the bignole are not enough and you want to try other special variations of the pancakes of Carnival, there are those of Apple or those of rice.

The tricks for frying

To get the magic equilibrium between softness is crunchiness, in the past to fry lard was used, a very inviting animal fat but also very caloric. Certainly not the best ingredient for one fry light: to "lighten" your fritters of Carnival, we recommend that you use orextra virgin olive oil, which has a smoke point around 210 degrees orpeanut oil, which has a smoke point around 190 degrees. The latter has a less strong flavor and is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, unlike other seed oils that contain polyunsaturated fats. As for the process of preparing carnival pancakes, one is always advisable quick fry and at one temperature between 165 ° and 170 °.

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