While I love gelato, pastries have never been at the top of my favorites list. I would much rather order an extra antipasto or plate of pasta, than ‘save room’ for desert. Maybe that is why it’s taken me so long to appreciate Italian pastries.
Italy isn’t really known for it’s pastries. Sure, there is tiramisu and cannoli that everyone knows and loves. But it’s not as if they are competing with France or anything. Yet Italians do have a sweet tooth. If you’ve ever spent time here you know that there is entire industry devoted to ‘breakfast’ cookies and cakes.
And Italy really does pull out all the stops in the sweet department when it comes to the holidays. At this point everyone has eaten Panetone, and even the eggier Pandoro. But things get a lot more complicated when you go from region to region, and holiday to holiday. There are some pastries that are available only for a few short days, in a few small towns.
We are spending Christmas in Bari this year, and a big part of the festivities include the platters of various pastries that Zia Tetta brings over. These used to be made by Zia Filippa, but her feet are hurting too much these days to bake anymore, so we now get our pastry-fix from Zia Tetta’s maid’s sister. (family relationships down here always get real complicated)
The pastry platters are numerous and always huge, and everyone has their favorites. But the centerpiece, the raison-d’etre if you will, are the cartellate.
It took me a very very long time to appreciate cartellate. These are strips of dough, rolled out paper-thin (this is where the name comes from: carta = paper) The pastry is then cut into thin strips, with a zig-zag edge. The strips are then manipulated into elaborate rose-shaped pastries, which are then deep fried in oil. Drained, they are drenched in vincotto, a cooked- down, wine-based syrup.
What do cartellate taste like? Well, imagine fried dough soaked in wine syrup. They are definitely weird. And do I have to add, heavy? I remember when I first tried one, I took a bite as my husbands entire family watched. “Mmm, yum. I’ll just save the rest for later.” They then gave me a ‘starter’ cartellate, one that had been dipped in honey instead of vincotto, which I have to admit I liked. Fried dough in honey. What’s not to like?
But I didn’t give up with the traditional version. Each year I’d try again, if only to help in the family effort to get through Zia Tetta’s platters. And now I can actually say that I love them. The fried dough is just the right foil for the slightly musty, not-too-sweet vincotto.
Today is the 26th, so it’s bye bye to the cartellate until next year. But carnevale is coming up soon, so it’s not as if I’ll be going into fried-pastry withdrawal any time soon. 
Cartellate
Here is a traditional recipe for Cartellate, if you want to have a go at it yourself. I, of course, have never made them, since we receive industrial quantities from Zia Tetta each year.
1 kilo of flour
40 gr yeast (cake type), disolved in a bit of water
200 ml olive oil
2 glasses of white wine
1 tsp salt
Olive oil for frying
Vincotto or Honey
Place the flour on a work surface, and make a well in the middle. Add the olive oil, wine and yeast and work it into the dough, kneading utill the dough is soft and elastic, (kind of like pizza)
Let it rise for a couple of hours, then punch it down. Divide into small balls.
Roll out each ball as thin as possible. With a zig-zagged edge pasta cutter (the rolling kind) cut strips that are 4 cm wide and 20-30 cm long. Fold each strip in two, length wise, so that the long edges are touching each other. Pinch the dough together with your fingers every 4-5 cm. Then roll the strip up, to form a kind of rose.
Heat a large pot of oil, and fry the roses until golden. Drain and let cool, on paper towels.
Bring a small pot of vincotto (or honey) to boil. Gently dip in each cartellate, swirling and pushing it under, so that it absorbs the vin cotto. Place on platter.
Once made, these will keep a couple of weeks.
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Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for the wonderful blog and photos of your Christmas in Bari. My family is originally from Bari and we still try to keep most of the Christmas traditions going here in Montreal, Canada. The most important being the Christmas Eve fish tradition and of course the Cartellate. I am happy to hear that you can finally say you love the Cartellate, it really is an acquired taste. As for myself, it is just not Christmas unless I have had my Cartellates.
Eating these delicious treats all my life and making them now for 26 years!! Every family has a different version of syrup and so very true they are an acquired taste! Enjoy them every Christmas!!
My mom was telling us about a fig syrup that her nana from Bari used to make and about a pastry. It sounds like cartellate. Do you have a recipe from Bari for the fig syrup and cartellate?
No, I”m sorry, I don’t. I’d have to look it up. But there are lots online.
Hi ,
My family is also from Bari, Palo del Colle.
My mom has passed almost ten years, however, I always helped her make these wonderful cookies. She used to be able to buy fig juice to make the syrup, but I can no longer find fig juice. Many times mom used prune juice,s and added 4-5 lbs of sugar and cooked it for hours uncovered until it was a very thick syrup.
Wow! they are wonderful.
What a lovely story!!
Thanks Ralph! Glad to know that traditions live on in Canada. Happy New Year from Rome.
My mom’s family was from Naples. Every year before Christmas I watched her make the honey version of this treat. I Haven’t had them since she stopped making them. They were my favorite Christmas treat.
Hi Elizabeth,
My family also makes the cartelatte, except we call them ‘catetate’ in Barese dialect. We also make another cookies with the same dough, except we stuff them with melted chocolate, crushed toasted almonds, grated lemon and orange peel, and some of the wine syrup. The cookies are in the shape of a mini calzone and are called ‘calzongit’ in the Barese dialect. These seem to also be an acquired taste, however all of my family and my husband’s family that grew up with them really enjoy and look forward to them on Christmas.
Thank you Jeannette. My family being Baresi as well also called it catetate..My uncle used to make them with a raisin sauce. between this site and a “half baked family recipe I found, I think I can recreate.
YES! Wheneveri mention either of these traditional Barese Christmas treats people (even other Italians) draw a blank. How exciting to see them shared here. Everyone in my family who used to make and enjoy them are passed on now. Well, except for ne and some of my older cousins. Thank you!
you may be the person to ask – 6 years ago on a trip to Puglia, we fell in love with an almond cookie in Ceglie Messapica that was filled with a dark cherry jam. Had it in two different restaurants (lunch and dinner). Slightly different variations – dinner was Al Fornello da Ricci and was a bit spicier. They were presented at the end of the meal and the gentleman at lunch warned us that they were a local cookie that was not found any where else – boy, was he right! I would love a recipe, but no one else has ever heard of it. It was clearly made in a roll and cut, then possibly baked again, a bit like biscotti, except for the fact that the cookie was nearly 100% almonds and the center was the dark cherrie – not ciligie, but amarone. (Forgive me for any spelling errors). Any ideas? Grazie! Annette Paul, Ashland, VA – by the way, we are heading back at the end of this month, so I’ll be renewing my quest, which is why I’m reading up on Puglia again.
It sounds delicious, and familiar as well. I’ll try to get the recipe for you next time I’m in Celgie. I’m sure the owner of Cibus will have heard of it.
Do you have the recipe for the roasted and for lack of a better word, candied almonds in the top right hand corner of your picture for the cartellate? I remember eating this at my Nonna’s house every Christmas and have not had it since!
Thank you!
Those are just caramelized almonds. I don’t have a recipe, but I think there are plenty out there. Here is a video showing how to do them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVrjn-Gcg-o
I’m thrilled to find cartellate . My grandparents were from Bari. As a child, I remember these delicious confections and feared I would never find the recipe as everyone has passed away. Would you be kind enough to translate the flour amount to cups for this American. God bless you and Blessed Christmas. Nina
Glad you liked the recipe! here is a great quantity converter: http://www.convertunits.com/from/grams/to/cups
My grandma Rose DeCillis (Vaccarelli) was from Mole de Bari and made Tarralli (“Tadads” in my family), Cartellate (“Cartadas”) and the other cookie some are mentioning, “PItzets”. I don’t know the real name of any of them. Just that we loved them all. Pitzets (NOT “pizzeles” – the flat batter cookie) have roasted almonds, cloves, cinnamon, cholcolate, lemon peel, baking powder, sugar, flour and cocoa. To mix all the ingredients together you have to use very little water; just enough to get it to stick. Then you roll it in a long rope, cut, bake and frost. They can be a very hard cookie but my father loved them. It’s very difficult to find many other people who know what these cookies are.
Yes, many of these old fashioned cookies never make it out of the towns they come from. Which makes them even more special.
My mother was from Gruomo Appulia in Bari and every Christmas this was a must – the cartedad, she would coat them with cotto that was fig juice .Of course she would make like so many other cookies . The almond milk she made for Christmas morning .So many memories
She passed away and wished I paid more attention to the way she made them .
What lovely memories!!
Hi Elizabeth,
My mother is from Serracapriola, and calls this special Christmas treat “Sfringele.” I’ve had them every Christmas my whole life, helping my mother form them since I was old enough to stand. I just learned that they’re more commonly known as cartellate, which explains why I’ve always had such a hard time finding the recipe online! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Glad you found them!!
My family is also from Bari and we have a similar cookie. We call it Epet (spelling) the difference, we dont use yeast, and we boil burgundy with, sugar and espresso, to dip them in.
My family is from Bari and my beautiful Grandma Teresa called them “La Pettole”….I’ve been scrolling and reading all of these wonderful memories and recipes from long lost loved ones! This is wonderful! The name Epet is the closest I have found to our La Pettole — and the photos on here (the rose) is the same as my grandma’s. We also shaped them into bows and circles. My mother also made them but has passed away also…. :(((. This Christmas my cousin, and 90 year old auntie will be making them…..next Sunday….I’m so excited and do hope they come close to my precious mom and grandmas. We are all so blessed to have these wonderful families and traditions….please have a Merry & Blessed Christmas, everyone!
Interesting that she called the pettole. In most of Puglia pettole refer to small balls of savory dough. I wonder if your Grandma Teresa was young when she moved and so confused the two words – cartellate and pettole?
My grandmother makes these every Christmas. We call them catadads. We use fig syrup. Was hard to find these online since even my grandma didn’t know the spelling. Will be making these for my grandchildren.
You said: “ Italy isn’t really known for it’s pastries. Sure, there is tiramisu and cannoli that everyone knows and loves. But it’s not as if they are competing with France or anything. “
It seems obvious you have never set foot in an Italian pasticceria.
Maybe just google it and you will see how many different types of pastries are made and eaten in Italy, all year round. It is true that for the holidays there are even more types of sweets that are only made for the occasion.
Sorry, but I think you missed my point. It’s not that there aren’t pastries in Italy, it’s that most remain unknown outside of Italy.
So true! . . . Visited Rome a few years back and was blown away by the variety and amazing choices!
Hi – I’m so happy I found this site. My Moms side of the family is fro Bari also (Dads is French Canadian) and my Mom passed this recipe down to my sisters and I. We call it Cartadata (spelling??) and the syrup or Couta is what they called it is made with Figs and Raisins and Sugar and long cooking and squeezing through cheesecloth. We shape ours as bowties and small pinwheels. Thank goodness for one of my aunts who discovered that the same taste can come from slow cooking a gallon of red wine and 5lbs of sugar. My sisters and I are all getting together tomorrow to make them. I’ve made your version dipped in honey and I absolutely love it! Happy Baking everyone!!
What a wonderful story!!! Thanks for sharing.
My grandma Anna came from Toritto Bari Italy in 1908. She lived to be 100. Made the syrup and cookies for Christmas and passed down the recipe.
Flour, water, white wine salt and olive oil. The syrup from boiling 5-6 lbs of raisins for hours and hours. Then straining it for the syrup.
The cookies were rolled and cut into strips about 10”x 1 1/4” using a zig zag rolling cutter. They were given one twist in the middle.
Then fried in oil till golden and drained on paper towels on tablecloths spread over every bed in the house!!
When cooled they were dunked in the syrup and stacked loosely in pie pans covered in foil for giving out. Memories!
Veronica! This sounds like the exact recipe, my family used for Cartadette and Couta!! If you would share you recipe, I would be so grateful. I remember the prunes, raisins and sugar being made into a syrup with that 5 pound bag of sugar and hanging in that cheesecloth to drip when hands got tired. We also made the dough into bowties. If you have these recipes and are willing to share I would truly appreciate your kindness. I want to pass this recipe down to my son. I wish I had paid more attention but as one of the younger ones, I was the fryer. lol My email is [email protected].
My mother in law, from Bari, made them with prune juice, raisins and sugar …simmered into a thick syrup…. My son and I make them…every couple of years. Lots of work but sooo delicious.👵👍
Brings back memories that sadly are fading
Thank you for posting these stories
A senior born in Sannicandro di Bari – in Ontario
OMGoodness! I have been trying to find the Prunes, raisin and sugar recipe. I have written to simmer prunes, raisins and 5 pounds of sugar to a syrup and place the fruit in cheese cloth and hand and squeeze to get the syrup…I have no idea what I place in with the prunes and raisins…do I add water? I would truly appreciate your help and or recipe! Thank you!
Prunes? You’ve lost me. I’ve never written about prunes.
Would you please share your recipe! I am on a hunt for that syrup…with the prunes, raisin and sugar boiled to a syrup. We would heat the syrup and dip the bowties into the syrup and it would stick so nicely. Delicious! If you could share the recipes to the bowties and coute, I would greatly appreciate your kindness. [email protected]
I don’t have a recipe, but would have to google it. Not quite sure what you mean by bowties?
Thank you so Much! My Grandparents from Bari (Guido & Troiano)settled in Brooklyn Flatbush around 1920ish. (Seven kids) Grandpa made wine in the basement at its height 13 huge barrels and all the men and boys had to help every October after he went to market for the Grapes (always red). He used to sell Gallon jugs for $1or $2. Grandma used his Wine (thick residue from bottom of barrel?) and Molasses for the Cartellate.
What we heard Grandma call them (always proud of her third grade education!) with her thick Bari accent was
“En-Gar-Ta-Dow” always lopping off the last vowel!
Now I can see the real pronunciation.
My Aunt Ann continued to make them as well as the eldest of my 3 sisters.
Lucky Us!
I hope to find them in my Local Pasta/Pork store this Christmas as my Aunt has passed and my Sister doesn’t make them anymore.
Thanks again!
VITO COLONNA