Carnival Castagnole with Bonamini Oil

Small dough balls fried in EVO oil and then rolled in sugar, with a crumbly consistency and an unforgettable flavour.
Not as famous as the classic Carnival fritters but these sweet castagnole are worth to tell more about and nothing to envy to all the other Carnival sweets.
One leads to the other, the original castagnole are the classic mid-afternoon snack when it’s carnival time; from Verona to Venice, all the kids have always had different options to choose from when it comes to sweet Carnival recipes: fritters, galani and the castagnole. Carnival afternoons were always well spent when confetti, costume parties and sweet snacks were all combine together.

But what is the whole story behind these sweet castagnole, as much delicious as forgotten? And more than that what we all foodies for sure want to know is: which is the original recipe for this Carnival castagnole? Let’s find out together.

The italian word castagnola comes from the word castagna which means chestnut and it seems like these castagnole took their name right because of the chestnuts (maybe because they look alike?).
In addition to that, these carnival sweets make their first appearance in some recipe books from the 1600, when the castagnole original recipe was prepared and savored at the D’Angiò court, in both their versions: fried and baked. At the time they weren’t just Carnival castagnole though, but simply castagnole because they were also comsumed out from the Carnival time and, if you’d like us to be more specific, from the beginning of Christmas time to Ash Wednesday.
Our beautiful Italy, divided in so many regions, made it so that over the years the Carnival castagnole origanl recipe underwent to different ingredients changes due to the local products of the single regions; in spite of this matter, there are some fundamental ingredients which cannot miss in the recipe of the castagnole like: eggs, sugar, flour, a fat source like butter or extravirgin oil, lemon zest.

Find out how to prepare the castagnole with Bonamini olive oil

Here at Frantoio Bonamini we love the Carnival castagnole, they always bring great memories and unforgettable feelings.
But a little bit because of our professional deformation and because we wanted to make them healthier, we adapted the original castagnole recipe to our olive oil producers needs.
So, we didn’t only replace the butter with EVO oil but we also decided that if we were going for something fried, then at least it had to be a quality frying and that’s why we usually fry our sweet castagnole in olive oil and not in any vegetable oil.

You heard that right, frying in extravirgin oil? Yes, you can so dive your food in extravirgin olive oil, better taste and better quality. And let’s do it now that we are coming to the Carnival time, one of the most greedy times of the whole year, when fried sweets like castagnole and fritters are a constant temptation.

Ingredients

• 350g 00 flour
• 2 eggs
• 75g sugar
• 60g di “San Felice” Bonamini olive oil 
• 8g baking powder
• 1 lemon (you’ll need the peel)
• EVO Bonamini oil Longazeria for frying

Preparation

1. In a bowl beat until stiff whisk the eggs with the sugar
2. Add to the mixuter Bonamini EVO oil “San Felice” and mix it well
3. Add the sifted flour and baking powder
4. Use the peel from the lemon, a lot of it and keep mix it until you get a compact and smooth dough
5. Grab a pan, fill it with Bonamini extravirgin olive oil Longazeria and heat it up till 170 °C/338 °F
6. Gran the dough and with the help of a teaspoon start to form small balls to dive in the boiling EVO oil
7. Once they turn to a goldish color, take the sweet castagnole out from the olive oil and let them rest on a piece of blotting paper
8. Once they cool it down, roll them in the sugar and serve them while still lukewarm

And because Carnival castagnole are one of our favorite Carnival sweets, we want them to conquer your hearts as well… so here’s 4 good reasons to use extra virgin oil instead of butter and more preparation advice to make sweet castagnole like a Bonamini.

1. The castagnole when prepared with extravirgin olive oil are softer and easier to digest (olive oil is less viscous than butter so it takes in more air during the kneading phase).
2. Castagnole made without butter keep fresh and fragrant for a longer time, thanks to the antioxidants in olive oil
3. As known, using EVO oil instead of butter and vegetable oils allows to get healthier Carnival castagnole, rich in “good” fats and beneficial substances
4. Castagnole with extravirgin olive oil are also dairy free, because not even one dairy prodyct was used

The tips from the Bonamini home chef for the correct preparation of the Carnival castagnole recipe:

• Like for all the other baking recipe, also in this case, to make castagnole really soft we need to beat until stiff the eggs with the sugar, until we get to a pale and foamy mixture
• To make the dough us an extravirgin olive oil with a delicate taste: for this specific reason we advise our San Felice olive oil, which is good for everything and it’s also available in its Lemon and Orange verisons, make a great stand-in
• To let all the ingredients easily blend together, take them our of the refrigerator at least 1 hour before or use only room temperature products to make the castagnole dough
• If you don’t know how to tell when the EVO oil is ready for frying try this: take a small piece from the dough and let it fall in the oil, if it starts to sizzle and it comes to the top, then it means it’s time to dive our sweet castagnole in the olive oil. 

So, what do you say? Did they/we conquer you? Now enough talking, go to the Bonamini Website to stock up on your favorite EVO oils which are necessary to make this Carnival castagnole recipe a true success!