Marta Loreggian (left) with her friend and sous-chef Silvia Martinez. Own photo You encounter all the flavours of the world in Wageningen. Soil Physics PhD candidate Marta Loreggian shares a recipe for Italian galani.
‘In Italy, Carnevale is the day before Lent. Carnevale is a time of excess, when the usual rules are turned upside down. It’s a big celebration and we eat a lot of sweets like this one. If I was at home now, I would be making galani with my grandma; this is her recipe. Galani is what we call it in my hometown of Padua but it has different names all over Italy!’
Preparation time: about two hours, including 30-60 minutes for the dough to rest
Makes about 30 galini
Ingredients:
-3 eggs
-50g melted butter
-300g flour
-3 tbsp sugar
-3 tbsp white wine/grappa/rum
-generous pinch of salt
-16g baking powder
-frying oil
-icing sugar for decoration
Preparation
1. Break the eggs into a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk. Fold in the butter and mix well. Add the white wine and give a final whisk to aerate the mixture.
2. In a different bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and mix together.
3. Add this to the egg mixture gradually, whisking continuously.
4. Once you have a consistent dough, transfer to a well-floured surface and knead. It may be very sticky at first but the more you knead, the less sticky it becomes. Add flour if needed but make sure to sprinkle it on the surface, as then it is incorporated uniformly into the dough as you knead. Once the dough stops sticking, let it rest for about 30-60 minutes.
5. Set up a pasta machine and heat the oil. The oil is ready when you dip in a toothpick and the surface bubbles around it.
6. Divide the dough into small portions and use the pasta machine to roll out sheets as thinly as possible (No. 8 setting).
7. Cut out triangular pieces with a slit in the centre of each triangle (see photo). With a fork, gently poke holes on the surface.
8. Fry until both sides are a light, golden brown. The surface will bubble up and become crispy.
9. Drain the excess oil by letting the galani rest on kitchen paper.
10. Once cooled, sift icing sugar on top and enjoy!
