Cannoli Siciliani

1. The day before making cannoli, place the ricotta in a sieve over a bowl to drain off any excess liquid.

Make the dough

2. Place the flour in a large bowl and sift in the cocoa. Add the sugar, cinnamon and salt and mix with a spoon until fully combined. Dice the lard and add it to the flour mixture. Work the mixture by pinching the pieces of lard with the tips of your fingers to break them into very small lumps, fully coated in flour. Keep working the mixture quickly until the lard is finely dispersed into the flour and no more clumps are visible.
3. Beat the egg in a small bowl and add 30g (1oz) of the beaten egg to the flour mixture. Retain the rest for sealing the shells later. Add the Marsala, orange zest and vinegar to the mixture and work it in the bowl with your hands. Once all the liquids have been absorbed by the dry mixture, turn it on to the worktop and knead it until all the flour has been incorporated into a smooth and homogeneous dough. The mixture is quite dry, and it requires vigorous kneading for a few minutes before all dry ingredients are incorporated. This will create a rather elastic dough which will need resting before being rolled thin. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or a couple of hours if possible.

Make the cream filling

4. While the dough rests, prepare the filling: once drained, shop-bought ricotta can be used as is, artisanal sheep’s milk ricotta will need sieving. This can be done by pushing it through the mesh of a strainer with the back of a spoon. Place the ricotta in a large bowl and whisk it with a handheld electric whisk until creamy. Add the sugar, vanilla, orange zest and whisk again to combine. Fold in the candied peels.
5. Transfer the cream to a piping bag with a plain 1.5cm (5/8in) diameter nozzle. Pinch the tip and the back of the bag closed with a plastic clip and store it in the fridge until needed.

Fry the shells and assemble

6. Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and divide it into 4 roughly equal pieces. Flatten one piece with your fingers, then pass it through the rollers of a pasta maker on the widest setting. Fold the pastry in half, turn it 90° and pass it through the pasta maker on the same setting. Repeat the folding and rolling at least three more times. You will notice that throughout this process the appearance and texture of the dough will change significantly: it will look finer and smoother after each passage. Repeat with the remaining pieces of pastry.
7. Now start laminating the pastry to the required thickness: reduce the gap in the pasta maker rollers by one step and pass the pastry through them once more. Work progressively by reducing the gap and rolling the pastry until it is no more than 1mm (1/32in) thick. This is usually the thinnest setting on the pasta maker.
8. Using a 12cm (4½in) round pastry cutter, cut 12 discs of dough – 3 from each strip. If such a large pastry cutter is not available, you can also cut the pastry into 12cm (4½in) squares instead. Wrap each disc around a cannoli mould, sealing the overlapping edges together with a dab of egg wash, leftover from the dough. Pinch the dough firmly against the moulds with your thumbs to seal the shells closed. If you cut squares, rather than circles, wrap them around the moulds so that opposite corners overlap. Do not wrap the dough around the moulds too tightly but leave enough room for it to swell while frying. If the dough is too tightly wrapped around the moulds, the shells are more likely to tear open in the fryer.
9. Set the oil temperature in the fryer to 180°C (350°F) or use a pan large enough to accommodate comfortably at least 2 cannoli shells and fill it with at least 8–10cm (3¼–4in) of oil. Place it over a medium heat, controlling the temperature with a cooking thermometer. While the oil heats up, line a cooling rack with 2 layers of kitchen paper, and place it next to the fryer.
10. Fry each shell for no more than 1 minute, turning it over frequently with heatproof tongs or holding it into the oil with a slotted spoon for a few seconds to cook it evenly. Rest the shells on the kitchen paper and remove the cannoli moulds as soon as they are cool enough to handle.
11. When you are ready to serve the cannoli, place the pistachio kernels on a dessert plate or a small bowl. Pipe the cream into both ends of the cannoli, making sure that they are completely filled. Dip each end in the pistachio kernels to coat the cream fully. Arrange on the serving plate and lightly dust the lot with icing sugar. Store in the fridge for up to a day.