Learn how to make Gnocco Fritto, the delicious pillows of Italian fried bread from Emilia Romagna. Perfect with prosciutto and cheese. I'll also show you how to get your Gnocco Fritto puffy every single time - plus a bonus parmesan bechamel filling recipe.
About This Gnocco Fritto Recipe
Gnocco Fritto (also known as crescentina or chisulèn) is a delicious appetiser from the Emila Romagna region of Italy made using flour, water and lard. Squares of yeasted bread dough are deep fried until golden where they get their puffy "pillow" look. Crescere (which Crescentina comes from) means to grow. These puffy pillows are often served with prosciutto and cheese.
What does Gnocco Fritto mean?Gnocco means little lump or knot and fritto means fried!
What are the ingredients in Gnocco Fritto? This is a very simple dough made using flour, milk, water, instant dried yeast, lard or butter plus oil to deep fry.
How to eat Gnocco Fritto? It is traditionally served with prosciutto or salami and cheese. I'll also show you how to make a delicious parmesan bechamel filling to pipe inside them just like I had at an Italian restaurant!
Video How To Make Gnocco Fritto From Scratch
Video: How to Make Gnocco Fritto and serving ideas
Tips For Making Gnocco Fritto
1 - The signature feature of gnocco fritto is the puffy pillow shape and I'm going to show you how to get this every single time. We need three things:
a. Oil at 180C/350F. The oil needs to be hot to encourage the dough to puff up.
b. As soon as the dough hits the hot oil and rises up, spoon the hot oil over the top of the dough. This will ensure that the top puffs up. I fry 4 at a time and this gives me enough time to spoon the oil over them (any more and it's like whack a mole!). I find that usually 2-3 usually puff up on their own after a bit of oil and there's one that needs more encouragement! Spooning oil over the top of the dough also makes it easier to flip and cook on the other side too.
c. Once cooked, keep the gnocco fritto in a single layer on a baking tray. Stacking them when hot can collapse the bubble.
2 - This recipe can be easily halved or quartered if you just want to try a small amount of these, halving this will give you 16 squares, quartered will give you 8 squares.
3 - Traditionally lard is used but you can also use butter. I used chicken fat which I kept in the freezer after roasting chicken.
4 - The parmesan bechamel filling for the gnocco fritto is optional but it's SO good that you will want to try it like this! I had bechamel filled gnocco fritto at A'mare restaurant and it was so good that I had to try and recreate it here. I make it in the Thermomix as it makes the best bechamel ever and you just set and let the machine do all the stirring.
5 - To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a cube of bread into it and if it sizzles and starts to cook and toast it is ready.
6 - Like all deep fried foods, these are best eaten on the day that you fry them.
1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs water 38°C to 46°C/100°F to 115°F
1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs milk
80g/2.8ozs lard, or butter, melted (I used chicken fat)
Oil, for deep frying
Parmesan Bechamel (OPTIONAL)
30g/1oz butter
30g/1oz flour
1 1/4 cup/310ml/11flozs milk, heated
1/2 teaspoon salt
75g/2.6ozs grated parmesan cheese
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 Mix - Whisk the flour, yeast and sugar together well in a large mixer bowl so that it is well distributed. Whisk the salt into the water. Then switch to a spatula and mix in the milk and water and melted butter or fat. It will look shaggy but that is fine. Knead on low speed for 5-6 minutes or until you can pull apart the dough and see through it and it doesn't break (the window pane effect).
Step 2 Rise - Shape dough into a ball with no cracks on the top and place in an ungreased bowl and cover. Allow to rise until doubled in size for 1 to 1.5 hours (I place the bowl in another bowl of hot water that I change 3-4 times) or you can let this rise, covered in the fridge overnight. Just take it out of the fridge to let it come to temperature 1 hour before you want to use it.
Step 3 Cut - Cut the dough ball into quarters. Roll each segment of dough out into a thin rectangle and then rest for 5 minutes. Trim the edges with a ruler and pizza cutter to create a rectangle around 22x13cms/8.6x5.1inch roughly and cut into 8 pieces. Line 2 large baking trays with a double layer of paper towels.
Quartering the dough
Rolling into a rectangular shape
Trimming the edges to make a rectangle
Cutting into 8 pieces
Step 4 Fry - Add 2 inches of oil to a cast iron pot and heat to 180C/350F. Fry 4 pieces at a time making sure to use a large serving spoon to spoon the hot oil over the top of the dough. At first the dough will sink to the bottom of the pot and then rise up and this is when you spoon the hot oil over the dough to puff it up. After 45-60 seconds or when light golden, turn the dough over and fry on the other side; it should take less than 2 minutes to fry each batch. Remove and place in a single layer on the parchment and repeat with the remaining dough squares. Serve with prosciutto or cheese or make the parmesan bechamel below and fill them!
Spooning hot oil over the dough to help puff up
Step 5a conventional - In a small saucepan on medium heat melt the butter. Once melted add the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring to coat the flour with the butter. Switch to a whisk and add the milk gradually in a steady stream whisking the entire time so that the mixture is smooth. Switch to a spatula and stir in the salt and parmesan cheese.
Step 5 b Thermomix directions - add all ingredients into the Thermomix and set to 7 minutes, 90C, speed 4.
Step 6 Fill - Allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes or until warm and not too hot to handle. Place in a piping bag and poke a small hole in the gnocco fritto with a chopstick or paring knife and fill with a tablespoon of bechamel sauce. Cover with prosciutto and serve straight away.
Substitution notes and ingredients:
Use high protein flour as this will give a better rise. Choose a specific bread flour and look for the protein level on the nutritional panel. Aim for 12g of protein per 100g.
If using fresh yeast, replace 1 teaspoon of instant dried yeast with 10g/0.3ozs of fresh yeast.
Lard can be replaced with butter or chicken fat/schmaltz
If you love blue cheese, replace 30g/1oz of the parmesan half with gorgonzola in the bechamel.
Personal Note
The afternoon I made these gnocco fritto Laura was coming over for lunch. She messaged me that she was running a bit late which was a huge relief as I was running late too (we're often in sync that way). I had wanted to have the video for this already shot and done by then but sadly that was not to be and I was running around trying to style everything for our lunch and lay out the gnocco fritto. "Sorryyyyy!" I said as she arrived but Laura works in PR so this wasn't an issue, she knows what I do and was patient when I was trying to take pictures and video.
We were making pizza afterwards and I had this parmesan bechamel ready for a truffle pizza. It was actually her suggestion that we try it in the gnocco fritto which was absolute genius. When I had eaten gnocco fritto at A'mare restaurant it came with a bechamel filling anyway so I should have thought of that.
I piped the parmesan bechamel into a crisp gnocco fritto shell. It was absolutely delicious, the crisp bread crunching against the creamy savoury custard. "This would be great with some prosciutto too," I said. Mr NQN was busy videoing me and I went to grab a piece of prosciutto but it was huge. Immediately Laura saw that I needed a smaller piece so she whispered in my ear, "Do you need to phone a friend?" and I nodded and we got the video on that take. Because sometimes it takes a whole team!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever trie dmaking Gnocco Fritto at home? Would you serve it plain, with prosciutto or filled with bechamel?
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