Very few ingredients but the right ones
Very few ingredients but the right ones. Above all no mixer or blender contemplated. As tradition teaches, you should knead using your hands and nothing more. In the past, make these pastries was a special occasion to stay together and help each other. “Where’s the butter?” I ask, shyly, even if I’ve got the answer on the table in front of me. There are: flour, sugar, eggs, Extra Virgin olive oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, lemon zest and a little glass of Martini. No butter. Too modern and too expensive, I think. These are the ingredients to make “cuzzupe”, typical Calabrian pastry. You are probably asking for the recipe. Well, I see Rosa combining all the ingredients, kneading, rolling out the dough as she is following the rhythm of a song she knows by heart. Meanwhile I’m looking for a piece of paper, a notebook, everything where I can find the ingredients of the recipe. As the butter, there was nothing of these stuff. Rosa tells me that she hasn’t got the right amount of each ingredient but she helps me in another way. “4 Eggs = 2 tablespoons of sugar...”
I clearly understand that traditional sweet don’t come from a precise recipe: everyone has each one recipe, which Change all the time. Cuzzupe, in fact, are never the same of those made the previous year.
I give you the recipe, treasure it:
In a large bowl, beat 4 Eggs with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of extra Virgin olive oil. Add 2 tablespoons of Martini, the lemon zest and a bit of its juice. Start adding the flour, stirring with a whip. Add 16g of baking powder, a pinch of salt and a pinch of baking soda. Add even more flour until
You can knead the dough with your hands: it should not be sticky but elastic and soft. Shape the cuzzupe as you like, brush with some egg white and decorate with candy confetti sprinkles on top. Bake at 180 degrees for about 20 min.