| Sfogliatella | |
| Country: | Italy |
| Region: | Campania |
| Type: | Pastry |
| Main Ingredient: | Pastry dough |
| Variations: | Many types of fillings |
Sfogliatella (pronounced as /it/; Neapolitan: sfugliatella; : sfogliatelle), sometimes also known in the United States as a lobstertail,[1] [2] is a shell-shaped pastry with a sweet or creamy filling, originating in the Campania region of Italy. Sfogliatella means 'small, thin leaf/layer', as the pastry's texture resembles stacked leaves.
The sfogliatella Santa Rosa was created in the monastery of Santa Rosa in Conca dei Marini, province of Salerno, southern Italy, in the 17th century. Pasquale Pintauro, a pastry chef from Naples, acquired the original recipe and began selling the pastries in his shop in 1818.[3]
The dough is stretched out on a large table or flattened with a pasta maker, then brushed with a fat (butter, lard, shortening, margarine, or a mixture), then rolled into a log (much like a Swiss roll, but with many more layers). Disks are cut from the end, shaped to form pockets, and filled. The pastry is baked until the layers separate, forming the sfogliatella
Recipes for the dough and filling vary. Fillings include orange-flavoured ricotta cheese, almond paste, and candied peel of citron.
In Neapolitan cuisine, there are two types of the pastry: sfogliatella riccia ('curly'), the standard version, and sfogliatella frolla, a less labour-intensive pastry that uses a shortcrust dough and does not form the sfogliatella
A variation named coda d'aragosta (in the United States "lobstertail")[5] also exists, with the same crust but a sweeter filling.