One of the best snacks any Italian can have around the house are taralli, a crispy bread stick. At the store you’ll usually find them in small circles flavoured with hot peppers, sun-dried tomatoes or fennel. My Calabrese side makes them much longer, in loops you need to snap in half, and using black anice seeds from Italy. This is a large recipe, if you are going to make taralli, you might as well make a lot, but if you decide to halve the recipe, use 2 eggs instead of 3. A word of warning: these are addictive.
Taralli
20 cups of flour
4 tbsp salt
1 heaping tbsp Crisco shortening
3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
4 1/2 cups water
1 tsp anice seeds
Preparing the yeast:
4 tsp “ready” yeast
1 cup hot water
2 tsp sugar
mix all together and let sit until it rises
Stir together flour, salt and anice seeds. Add eggs, Crisco and oil in with the yeast mixture. Put both these mixtures together into a mixer bowl, using a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add water and start the machine to knead the dough. Allow the mixer to run for five to ten minutes. Ensure the dough is more to the tough/hard consistency rather than soft. Add extra flour and continue to mix as necessary to get the right consistency.
Once the dough is kneaded, empty the entire bowl as one big ball onto a large cutting board or counter. Cut the big ball into smaller pieces and roll into smaller balls. Set aside and cover with a dry tea towel as you make each ball. Take each ball at time and cut it into smaller pieces, about an inch thick, to create single breadsticks. Cover the entire batch with a wet tea towel.
Take one pieces at a time and roll into a long thing breadsticks, pinching the ends together to form a loop.
Lay these breadsticks on a tablecloth or towel-covered tray. Cover with another tablecloth so that they can rise a little. Put a large pot of water to boil.
Once you notice that the breadsticks have risen a little, take 2-3 at a time and place into the boiling water. When they boil for about 1-2 minutes, and have risen to the top of the water, remove them from the water and place them back onto the tablecloth or towel to dry for a couple of minutes.
When enough breadsticks have been boiled, place them in rows on an oven rack which has been previously sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 300 degrees until golden brown, turning over once.
Once they are golden brown, remove the breadsticks carefully into a large basket until they are all baked. If you want crispier breadsticks, place them all back in the oven, piling them up onto each other on the racks and at low heat, about 150 degrees, bake for about 1 hour. Once cooled, snack until your heart’s content (and fight off friends, family and roommates.) They are awesome with cheese, sopprasatta and a glass of wine or dipped into peanut butter or Nutella. To save yourself from gorging you can also place them in zipped bags and freeze.
UPDATE: My mom reminds me that besides being a great snack taralli, used frozen, are also used as an ideal soother/teether for babies. It cools the gums and they get a little bread as they defrost. Used by Italian moms and nonni everywhere!
That’s a very good recipe and the results look delicious!! Great job!!!
Laura,
I am really enjoying reading your site. Especially the recipes and italian history. The taralli recipes is something I will definitely be trying out. As a child, I would sit next to my mom and watch and she would show me how to make cavatelli and ravioli, including all kinds of noodles. Taralli was a staple as a child. I remember their friends dropping by and there would be cheese, salami, nuts and olives at the table with homemade wine. But one thing I didn’t do is get the recipes. My mom made everything by “eye”. Now my mama is 92 years of age with dementia, so you can imagine how excited I am to see your recipes. My plan is to make the taralli, and surprise her with it. I hope she is as excited to see I made them for her as I am excited to try making them. Thank you Laura. Keep up the great work.
Thanks so much Rina! I’m glad I finally got around to doing this too. Have you tried doing the taralli yet? Let me know how it goes (make sure the dough is nice and hard before you start rolling!).
Hi Laura,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this website. Kudos to you for doing this. I really enjoyed reading the stores and history of our Italian heritage. Wonderful job. Keep up the good work. I guess I will be coming to you for recipes too. Once again, I love what you are doing,. Your grandparents would be very proud.
Thanks Cenza! I try all the time to make food the way Nonno and Nanna did…this is my way of making sure I learn it and learning more about being Italian-Canadian. The response has been great and I’m SO glad you love it to. Eventually I’ll get to the colouri recipe!
I would love to make there but don’t like fennel/anise seeds, so could I leave them out? Also can I make them with olive oil instead of Crisco. I thought that yeast is needed and no eggs
what is the true recipe…….white wine, yeast, flour………can you clear it up, please
You can totally leave out the anise – I’m not usually a huge fan of them either. I believe the Crisco is an important part of this recipe for the consistency – olive oil would change that. Different taralli recipes call for different ingredients, and as a result the texture and taste will be different. For the most part, those recipes that use wine are for the smaller round taralli. You’ll need to do some testing and find a recipe you like best! Good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions!
To me anise gives it that “Italian Flavour”…. don’t kick it until you try it! 😀
Hi there!
Just wondering if 20 cups of flour is the correct measurement or if that is a typo? I’ve never made taralli before, but that seems like a lot of flour, considering that the recipe only calls for 1 tsp of seeds. It seems like the seeds would get lost in that much flour. I’m really looking forward to trying your recipe, but just wanted to double check on this before getting started. Thanks!!
Hi Ashley,
Yes, that is the correct measurement – as mentioned in the post it is a large batch. You end up having 5 or 6 fennel seeds per taralli. But two things to note: You can half the recipe (see my notes in the beginning of the post) and, of course, you can add more fennel seeds if you desire. If you like more in them, put more in, it won’t harm the recipe. Hope it goes well for you!
Laura
love the taralli recipe – I love them and will make them if I can work out what to use to replace crisco – we don’t have that in the UK! But nor does it even exist in Italy so I am guessing to make them with only olive oil and water –
love the blog
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