"Zzippoli" (calabrian recipe)

"Zzipoli" are a delicious salty donuts. In the past, they were used to be cooked in Christmas period and above all on the 25th November, when there is the celebration of  Saint Catherine. In my village we have a beautifiul church in honor of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. 

A short history about Saint Catherine of Alexndria's life: she was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around the age of 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity and was martyred around the age of eighteen. The emperor gave orders to subject the saint to terrible tortures and then throw her in prison. He condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered.

So, the shape of the Zzipoli symbolizes the wheel of Saint Catherine.

Nowadays, we eat Zzipoli also in summer as appetizer or antipasto. 

Let's start!!!!

Ingredients: 

• 400 gr of Flour 0 ( farina rimacinata, durum wheat flour)
• 200 gr Flour 00 
• 20 gr Salt
• 10 gr Fresh Yeast
• 600 ml Water 

Extra:

• Sunflower Oil to fry 
• EVO for our hands
• fork
• paper
• bowl

Instructions: let's make them!

• Mix the 2 flours in a bowl
• Dissolve the yeast in a 200 ml water using your hands. And then put them in the flour make a hole and throuw the dissolved yeast. and stir!
• After  a while. use your hands to mix and little by little add the other part of water. 
• Then add salt and a little bit of water and mix
• then cover it with a plastic paper and put it on a warm place for a couple of hour ( i often use a oven with the lights on!)
• After 2 hours, our dough is ready to be used.
• Switch on the oil to fry (temperature has to reach 165 *C)
• Before using your dough, put some oil in your hands. Take a piece of dough, make like a donut and put directly  in the hot oil.
• After a while you see it's becoming bigger, turn them and....enjoy!!!!

Here it's a useful video to follow: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CH-qE5jDfaJ/