Today's bake is Taralli - an Italian snack made from flour, wine and olive oil. Additional flavourings are either chilli flakes, dried rosemary, fennel seeds or cracked black pepper. Each member of the family has their favourite, but without doubt the chilli ones boss the rest. (They have to be cooked last so that the flavours don't mingle.) For us they have become associated with Christmas.
The process is to knead together 1Kg of '00' pasta flour with 400ml of wine and 200ml olive oil and 3 teaspoons of salt. Rest the dough for at least an hour. Then divide into 4 before adding the chosen flavourings, rolling out into stands and shaping into rings. Each ring is then dunked into a large pan of simmering water and only fished out once it has risen to the surface. (Slotted spoon required!)
Quickly dried off on a teatowel they are then laid out on a lined baking tray and baked until dried out to the core. About half an hour at gas mark 5 seems to do the trick.
The end result stores for weeks (or months) and is traditionally served with a glass of wine or a cocktail nibble. They are also very popular on their own although they will make you thirsty! The above quantities make about 140 taralli.
