Name: Recensione di Panzerotti di Gourmetazat presso Panzerotti Luini, Milano, Italia
Item: Panzerotti
Rating: 4.1
Author: Gourmetazat

Italy

A half-moon of soft pizza-type dough sealed around tomato and mozzarella and dropped into hot oil until it swells and turns gold: the panzerotto is Puglia's answer to the question of what to do with leftover bread dough, and Bari eats it standing on the pavement at ten at night. The name comes from panza, belly, for the way it puffs. It is a cousin of the Neapolitan pizza fritta and the calzone, but smaller than either, always fried rather than baked, and with a filling that in the original is only tomato, mozzarella and a little pepper or oregano. Newer fillings include ricotta and spinach, mortadella, or ham and cheese, and a sweet version with Nutella exists, but the tomato and mozzarella one is what a Barese means by the word. It is sold from friggitorie and bakeries and made at home for Carnival and for guests.

The dough is a soft, well-hydrated mix of flour, water, yeast, salt and a little oil or lard, often with a share of semola rimacinata, proved for several hours until light. It is divided into balls of 80 to 100 grams, rolled into discs about the thickness of a coin, and a spoonful of filling is placed on one half: chopped fior di latte that has been drained so it does not weep, tomato pulp or passata cooked down and seasoned, sometimes a few capers or an anchovy. The edge is folded over, pressed, and crimped with the fingers or a fork so nothing escapes in the oil. The panzerotti are fried in deep sunflower or peanut oil at 170 to 180°C for two to three minutes, turned once, until the surface is blistered and gold, then drained briefly on paper. They are eaten within minutes, wrapped in paper, with the first bite taken carefully because the filling is molten.

A good panzerotto puffs into a hollow shell with the filling pooled at the bottom, and the dough is thin, crisp and dry on the outside and soft, almost bready, within; it should not drip oil when lifted. The seal must hold. The mozzarella should stretch and the tomato should be hot and tasting of itself, not sugary or of tinned paste. Mark down a heavy, greasy casing from oil that was too cool, a pale soft one from oil that was too hot for too short a time, a dough that is dense and raw at the seam, a filling that has burst and fried on the outside, and an overfilled panzerotto where the dough is an afterthought. Baked versions sold under the name are a different, lesser product. Two is a snack and three is dinner, and they do not keep.

Panzerotti

Panzerotti Luini

Fried dough with flavorful fillings. We tried mozeralla with tomato, ricotta with spinach and four cheese. Definitely worth to try. My favorite was mozeralla and tomato. 

Recensione di Panzerotti di Gourmetazat presso Panzerotti Luini, Milano, Italia

Panzerotti

Panzerotti Luini

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