Zeppole for St.Joseph Day
Forget the corned beef and cabbage, break out the zeppole! March 19 is St. Joseph’s Day, time to trade in the green for the red and forget about St. Patrick.
Italian-Americans throughout New England celebrate St. Joseph’s Day by binging on the luscious pastry known as zeppole, available in most Italian bakeries. Rhode Islanders are especially partial to the saintly snack. Nearly one in five Rhode Island residents, 18.9 percent, claim Italian ancestry, making it the most Italian state in the country.
But you don’t have to be Italian to love zeppole, also known as St. Joseph’s fritters or bigne de San Giuseppe.
Zeppole (pronounced ZAY-poe-lay) are loosely defined as baked or fried donuts or fritters with fillings such as cream, custard or jelly and topped with sugar or fruit.
According to food writer Nikki Batsford at Quahog.org, the consensus in Rhode Island is that zeppole are baked rings of pate à choux (the dough used to make éclairs) filled with flavored pastry cream and garnished with powdered sugar and a maraschino cherry.
They were brought to New England by waves of Italian immigrants starting in the 1880s. Most came to escape grinding rural poverty in Southern Italy and Sicily.
St. Joseph, or San Giuseppe, is the foster father of Jesus and the patron saint of Sicily. The story goes that Sicily was stricken by a severe drought in the Middle Ages. The people promised St. Joseph they’d cook a big feast for him if he brought rain. He did, and the tradition was born.
Pope Gregory XV in 1621 declared March 19 the feast of St. Joseph. The original staple of the St. Joseph’s Day meal was the fava bean, which had saved the Sicilians from starvation.
Eventually the fava bean gave way to dessert. Some credit the convent of Santa Patrizia in Naples with making the first zeppola in the 16th century. During the 19th century, a Neapolitan baker named Pasquale Pintauro popularized zeppole by selling them from a street cart every March 19. Wearing red also became part of the St. Joseph’s Day tradition.
In Providence, zeppole were long sold by Calise & Sons, a bakery that started on Federal Hill around the turn of the century. By the 1970s, the bakery had to hire a police detail to control the crowds clamoring for zeppole.
Bakeries ramp up production of zeppole in the days prior to St. Joseph’s Day, but you can buy them year round in a couple of Providence shops.
Though associated primarily with Rhode Island, zeppole are sold in Italian-American neighborhoods throughout New England, including Boston, New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, Mass.
ZEPPOLE
Serve 36
Ingredients
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
1 cup all-purpose flour
All-Purpose Flour - 5 lbs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting
Directions
Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium saucepan, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in the eggs, ricotta cheese and vanilla. Mix gently over low heat until combined. Batter will be sticky.
Drop by tablespoons into the hot oil a few at a time. Zeppole will turn over by themselves. Fry until golden brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Drain in a paper sack and dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm.
Chef Walters Cooking School, Providence USA