Continuing on the theme of "Aperitivo", these scrumptious fried "angioletti" (lit. little angels) of pizza dough are usually offered in Neapolitan pizzerias to guests waiting for their pizzas, along with chopped tomatoes, basil and parmesan shavings.
If you are unfamiliar with them, you may be wondering what the hype is all about, but let me tell you - once you start eating these fried little angels, you won't be able to stop! They are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, amazing when hot or slightly warm.
They go by other names too, including fried little devils (yep, in contrast with angels), or fried scugnizzi (lit. street urchins), have now become a regular appetiser in pizzerias and a must-try if you ever go to Naples!
The good news though is that they are also very simple to prepare! So why not making them next time you plan to have friends over for aperitif (or aperitivo, as we call it in Italy), and feel like you are in Naples or on the Amalfi Coast?
You can dip them in a thick tomato sauce, or pretend you're being healthy like I do, and call them a salad. This one is full of Mediterranean flavour from arugula, cherry tomatoes, radishes, vinegar and sumac.
A delicious alternative version of these is sweet, with icing sugar and dipped in Nutella!
Try them both and let me know what you think.
Ingredients (for 4 as an appetiser)
For the dough:
150g 00 flour + 100g 0 flour (if you can’t get your hands on these you can replace both with 250g of all purpose flour)
150g water
1g dried yeast
5g salt
15g extra virgin olive oil
Enough sunflower or canola oil to deep fry
For the salad:
Angioletti, as many as you like!
Arugula
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Red onion
Radishes
Olive oil
A good quality, mild vinegar like apple cider vinegar
Sumac or black pepper
Salt
For the sweet version:
Angioletti, as many as you like!
Nutella, to dip your angioletti
Icing sugar, to dust on top
Method
Mix the 2 flours, water, yeast and olive oil in a bowl and add salt halfway through. Knead for a good 10 minutes until smooth. Cover with a towel and leave to prove for about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.
Using your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough to a 20x30cm rectangle and cut it into long strips, then cut each strip into 3 equal finger-sized pieces. Heat the frying oil to about 170°C and fry the pieces of dough in small batches.
When they are lightly golden, drain them and transfer on kitchen paper to remove the excess oil.
Once they've cooled down a bit, mix them to the salad ingredients and serve immediately.
For the sweet version - follow the same steps for preparing and frying the dough.
After draining them on kitchen paper, dust them in icing sugar and serve them with a dipping bowl of Nutella.
Buon appetito!