Recipe of the Month

. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marina's Crustoli

Growing up in an Italian family and community whenever there was a gathering of some sort for what ever occasion, crustollis would always be on the table dolcivita.com.au

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 3 dessertspoons of oil, ( light olive oil ), 1 dessertspoon of castor sugar *, .. 1 glass of beer (which ever one you may drink ) * 1 glass of brandy, Vanilla essence, Plain flour , add until the dough is elastic and firm ( I use farina oo) found at any supermarket ,

In a Large mixing bowl whisk together thoroughly the first 6 ingredients. Still using the whisk add spoonful of the four till it becomes to come together, Flour your surface and place the dough on that flour ,place more flour on the dough, then with clean hands work the flour into the dough, adding more till it becomes firm and elastic ( just the same as you make pastry) Dust with more flour cover with tea towel and rest for half an hour. While resting, heat your oil, my preference is to use an electric frypan, and my oil of use is sunflower oil, the frypan on the highest setting, I also use my kitchen table with a tablecloth on it the reasoning for this will become apparent towards the end. I also use my large baking tray lined with kitchen paper to drain the crustolis once they are cooked, To start take some amounts of the dough, roll it on the floured surface then roll it through the pasta machine. Start from number 1 and finish it on number 6. for me that is the ideal thickness. The pasta will be a long piece and the width of the machine.

Place on the floured surface and cut into strips the length of your hand. Once cut start cooking, place only 2 pieces at a time in the hot oil, so as not to crowd, once in and cooking I like to turn I wait a few seconds then turn them over to cook the other side. I do this several times till I get the colouring I like which is light golden colour. Take out and place in the lined tray and do the process again. Once you have cooked all the cut pieces, start all over again with another piece of dough. Now the kitchen table, when your tray is full, place the cooked crustolis on the table as close as possible to each other.

Cooking crustolis takes some time, but by no means is this not worth doing. I make myself a coffee in between all of this as I am doing this by myself, or if my other half helps we usually open a bottle of red and discuss everything that is going. If by some of chance you need to use more oil, add extra and wait for it to heat up again. Once you have finished cooking all the Crustoli, then to me the best part begins. The amount of Crustoli that I make I store them in large plastic containers about the size of the fruit box, make sure the inside is clean.

Take icing sugar and place in a medium sized plastic hand held strainer and dust the crustolis that are on the table, making sure everyone of them is coated. Once that is done, take one Crustoli at a time and place it in the container upside down, make a layer and dust with more icing sugar. By doing this both sides of the crustolis are coated with the icing sugar.

Continue until all the crustolis are finished. Feel free to make just what you want; the dough can be frozen for a few months.

The glass that I use holds about ¾ cup of liquid it is the glass that I always use but you can use your glass of choice, just remember the more liquid you use, the more flour you need which in turn the more crustolis you will make, The end result is that everyone is happy. And you can not stop at just one

If you would like authentic Crustoli for your dinner or function, call Marina on 0418 729 714 and

she will be happy to make them for you..

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