Calabrian turdilli

Turdilli are a traditional Calabrian sweets in the Christmas period prepared with simple ingredients such as flour, wine, and honey. The origin of this sweet can be traced back in ancient times and its name derives from Greek and means "small".

In Calabria, there are varied types of turdilli with differences in the dough and the topping. Some people use eggs, sugar, liqueur, and some others add red wine instead of cooked wine.

Calabrian turdilli: the ingredients

  • 1 kg of flour
  • 250 g of extra virgin olive oil
  • 200 g of cooked wine
  • 200 g of water
  • Grated orange peel and orange juice
  • A pinch of salt
  • Oil for frying
  • Chestnut honey

Calabrian turdilli: the recipe

Heat the water, oil, wine and orange juice in a saucepan and then gently pour flour in a pastry board without forgetting to add orange rind. Mix and knead the dough with your hands.

After getting a homogeneous mixture, make small rolls of a finger width, cut them and create small cylinders of about 5 centimetres. With the help of a fork, exert a little pressure on the cylinders to give them a shape like the shape of gnocchi.

At this point, fry turdilli in plenty of hot oil and drain them with a paper towel. Finally, heat the honey in a pan at low heat. Dip the turdilli in the melted honey and roll them gently with a wooden spoon for about a minute.

Take them out of the heat and decorate them with colourful sprinkles. Let them cool for a few minutes and finally, turdilli are ready to be served!