Yesterday my mom and I made  pittule…This is a typical dish of my little town Lecce, in the South of Italy that we eat on Christmas Eve.

I don’t think there is a translation for this name, and even if there is one, I don’t wanna use it, cause the word “pittule” carries so many memories of my childhood which would get lost if I changed it…

Basically pittule are small balls of fried dough, simple or dressed with a bunch of different things: tomatoes, tuna, capers, ext.

They are perfect as finger food, starters or snack. Try’ em sometime soon.

Ingredients:

• 350 g flour
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• 15 g fresh yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 250 g canned tomatoes
• 1 tbsp capers
• 3 cups oil (for frying)

In a bowl combine the flour

add salt

crumble in the center the fresh yeast and slowly pour in the lukewarm water

using your hands start mixing the ingredients

slowly keep adding water

until you get a very soft and watery dough

add in the capers

than grab a can of tomatoes

drain them and chop’ em up

then add the tomates to the dough and mix well to incorporate

Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rest for a couple of hours or until doubled in size

When ready heat up some oil in a deep fryer or in a pan, then scoop out tbsp of dough

and drop’em into the hot oil

fry them for a few minutes until they come up on the surface and get a nice golden color

Remove’ em from the oil and place them on kitchen towel

Your pittule are ready

Here is the inside, the lady on the background is my sis

Wish you all an amazing New Years! 🙂

Love

– LittleDani