The history of Neapolitan puff pastry
It is one of the most famous desserts in the world, it is the symbol of an entire city and has a truly inimitable taste: we are talking about the sfogliatella, the legendary Neapolitan dessert that everyone envies us. From the shortcrust to the curly version, it is a dessert that has bewitched billions of people, but very little is known about its origins. So let's try to find out where the legendary sfogliatella comes from.
A cake of "closure"
Despite what one might think, the sfogliatella was not born in the city of Naples. In 1600, in the area between Furore and Conca dei Marini (in the middle of the Amalfi Coast, therefore) there was the convent of Santa Rosa, where cloistered nuns lived. As is well known, these nuns had to commit their day to a thousand activities, in order to avoid contact with the outside world. The kitchen, therefore, became one of the places most frequented by these religious women.
According to legend, the mother superior, whose name was Clotilde, found leftover semolina soaked in milk. Those weren't times when you could waste food, especially in a convent: so Clotilde did her best, and she mixed these leftovers with ricotta cheese, dried fruit and lemon liqueur (the ancestor of limoncello). The final dough was closed like a monk's hood, giving life to the first "prototype" of sfogliatella, the famous Santarosa, named in honor of the convent in which it was made. That dessert made the fortune of those nuns, who offered it to the people in exchange for a few coins.
Despite being exceptionally good, Santarosa remained confined to the areas of the Amalfi coast for over two centuries. It was only in 1818, thanks to the innkeeper Pasquale Pintauro, that the sfogliatella also arrived in Naples.
Pintauro liked the dessert so much that he decided to open a confectionary laboratory in via Toledo and to "convert" to the pastry shop. Pintauro's version is the official one of the sfogliatella: the former innkeeper eliminated the dried fruit and thinned the pastry, giving it the shape we still know today. Although it is a dessert present in all the bars and pastry shops of Naples, it is still possible to taste the original puff pastry of Pintauro whose laboratory, albeit with a new management, is still there in via Toledo, with the old sign perfectly preserved.
After having talked about it so much, do you feel like a sweet puff pastry? Or, better still, do you want to make them at home to cheer up the palates of friends and relatives? On the D.L.Service Div. E-commerce website you can find many sheeter machines, thanks to which making the puff pastry will be child's play. At the following link you can find some of the dough sheeters available on the catering-refrigeration website
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