Italian Pizza Fritta Fried Dough

Italian Traditional Fried Feast Dough, Italian Pizza Fritta or well known as Zeppole!


If you have never tried fried pizza dough, you are missing out.


This is a special Italian treat we make often here in our home.


Mom would start our Sunday breakfast off with this delicious fried dough before our big traditional Sunday Sauce meal.


We always looked forward to Sunday morning with that fresh smell of fried dough.


This is a specialty at every American Italian church feast in Upstate New York.


Utica, New York is noted for the best homemade fried dough at all the church events during the summer months.


It's usually fried right in front of you and served with either sugar or powdered sugar in paper bags.


This recipe is the true experience of delicious sugar-coated sweet treat that is fried to perfection in any Italian household growing up.


It brings me fond memories and a tradition to carry on to my children and they love fried pizza fritta and so do their children.


Mom is smiling down knowing we carried on the same family values with pride that she started.


Scroll down for the complete recipe, it's easy, delicious and makes a wonderful memory etched in our family mind forever.

So Many Names and Kinds

Fried dough, Pizza Fritta, Pizza Fritte, Fried Doughnuts, Zeppole, Funnel Cakes, Beignets, Johnny Cakes are just a few names of fried dough.


There are so many versions. Italian fried dough is pizza dough, deep-fried and sprinkled with either powdered sugar or granulated sugar.


Carnivals, feasts, outdoor picnics, and backyard events, often make these dessert treats to serve.

The Best Quick Italian Dessert

This is another treat better known as Zeppole that we just called fried dough.


Mom and grandma would make fresh pizza dough homemade, fry it and sprinkle with sugar, still hot we always burned the roof of our mouth and enjoyed every bite back in the 1960s and still to date!


Fried dough is made anytime for an after-dinner or even breakfast dessert. Sometimes even stuffed with mozzarella, ricotta or anchovies on Christmas Eve then fried. Enjoy!

This can be made in a deep fryer, skillet or even a side burner outside on the grill, it sure is easy and tasty!


Fried dough is popular throughout the world in so many shapes and forms.


The Italian version is simply pizza dough is sprinkled with sugar.


The other parts of the world can be very different in how they prepare it.


There is even fried biscuit dough on Chinese American buffets!

Lots of Confusion on Zeppole

Much like other traditional dishes in Italy (many of the pastries), Authentic Italian zeppole have different variations all over the Italian peninsula.


They can come in all shapes, sizes, and have all sorts of fillings and toppings.


Yes, it can be one of the most confusing pastries in the whole of Italy.


The two most popular varieties are the ones made with pizza dough and the other one made of puff pastry dough, which is commonly called choux.


However, kinds of authentic Italian zeppole can also depend on the holiday, feast, or celebration they are made for… or the region in which they are prepared.

Italian Fried Dough

A powdery wonderful Italian treat to make, we can never make enough of them!


Just like at those old fashioned Italian feasts, oh yeah, back in Upstate NY all summer long you can enjoy these beauties at the local Catholic Church feasts.

A Hometown Italian Speciality!

It's so simple, but a life long memory and made by most Italians all over the world, especially in East Utica, N.Y.


Growing up in N.Y. this was a special treat that was at every Italian feast.

Italian Pizza Fritte, Fritta ( Fried Dough) Pin for later

Awesome on the Grill!

You can also enjoy them in your backyard in a cast iron skillet pan right on your own grill.


There's nothing to it!


Here is a recipe, that has been passed down for many generations.

Fried Dough Has So Many Names

Fried dough, Zeppole, pizza fritte, pizza fritta, doughnuts, and the South call them fritters!



Where ever your way is to make this or want to call this, fried dough in any Region of the world is one of the finest addictions.


Ours, Italian style is an amazingly easy dessert.


You can never have enough, and once you make it yourself, you will wonder how you lived so long without trying this wonder delicious dough fried with sugar.

So Many Different Regions

These doughnuts are called by many different names, depending on the Region of Italy where they are made.


I don’t believe anyone can eat just one pizza fritte.


Zeppole or fritta, are traditional Italian Christmas Eve doughnuts which are essentially made from a sticky, flavored version of plain bread dough.

Southern Italy

In the southern Italian region of Calabria, there's a saying which goes: A Immaculata a prima padejata ('the first fry-up on Immaculate Conception Day').


It's an expression which vividly illustrates the locals' anticipation to make zeppole (or zippule as they are known in the Calabrian dialect), dough fritters typical of the region at Christmas time.


Just to clarify, zeppola is a term used all over southern Italy to describe many different types of dough fritters.


Le zeppole di San Giuseppe, the deep-fried nest-shaped choux filled with pastry cream made on Saint Joseph's Day (March 19), is probably the most famous example.

Calabrian Zeppole

Then, on the other hand, are yeasted and more often than not, savory.


As with many Italian regional specialties, recipes for these addictive fritters vary enormously.


Zeppole are typical of Italian cuisine, especially that of Rome and Naples.


They are also served in Sicily, Sardinia, on the island of Malta, and in Italian-Canadian and Italian-American communities in Canada and the United States.


Zeppole are known by other names, including Bignè di San Giuseppe (in Rome), St. Joseph's Day cake, and sfinge.[1] Zeppole are traditionally consumed during the Festa di San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph's Day) celebrated every March 19, when zeppole are sold on many streets and sometimes presented as gifts.


In Istria, Croatia this pastry is called blenzi in the Croatian speaking places and zeppole in the Italian-speaking places.


They are always topped with sugar either powdered and a fried dough ball.


The version I knew growing up in Utica New York at the feast are a dough fried with powdered sugar or granulated sugar on top.

People would be lined up to buy dozens at a time

During the feast season in Utica New York, my Catholic church Mount Carmel would have people and assembly line of workers rolling the dough, one frying and one that bagged them as they came out of the sizzling oil.


Dipped in powdered sugar or regular sugar, your mouth would water waiting and the aroma of these can be smelled for miles around.


As a child, the church was around 12 blocks from my house on Lansing St. and could smell them frying that far away.


I couldn't wait to get there and often ran to get there eagerly anxious to buy my fried zeppole.


Sometimes I would burn the roof of my mouth eating that hot dough, but it was so good I couldn't wait for them to cool down.

Worth the Wait

They sometimes waited for hours in that line waiting for them to make them fresh right in front of your batch.



They went fast.


These were something to look forward to every year.


Everyone knew it was worth the wait!


But boy did it piss me off as they bought all of them in front of me before I got mine and had to wait for the second batch to fry up!!!


But it was worth the wait for these Italian Pizza Fritta Fried Dough and the taste will always be etched in my mind as my childhood favorite memory.

Watch my Video on Italian Pizza Fritta Fried Dough

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Pizza Dough

pizza frotta, zeppole, fried dough, Catholic feast dough, church dough, fried zeppole, pizza fritte

pizza, dough, how to make fried dough, dessert,

Italian

Yield: 22

Author: Claudia Lamascolo

Italian Pizza Fritta Fried Dough

prep time: 15 Mcook time: 25 Mtotal time: 40 M

This is a popular Italian dessert called Pizza Fritta or Zeppole. Actually, throughout every Region in Italian, it may have a different name. Simply, it's a pizza dough fried and then coated in sugar.

ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour or bread flour
• 1 pk dry yeast dissolved in 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

instructions:

How to cook Italian Pizza Fritta Fried Dough

1. Mix until dough forms a smooth dough and if still sticky add a little more flour by a tablespoon at a time. 
2. Place in a bowl, cover with a towel that has been dampened and wait until double in size as it rises. 
3. Stretch out around two tablespoons of dough into a circle poking a hole in the center like a doughnut or shape into small round balls.
4. . Place on a cookie sheet, lined with floured parchment paper. 
5. In the meantime, heat the oil in a fry pan, on medium-low heat. 
6. Place a little piece of dough, (the size of a dime) in the oil to see if it sizzles and it hot enough. 
7. Place the stretched out the dough or dough balls,  into the oil and fry on both sides until golden brown. 
8. Take out of oil when done, place on paper towels to drain oil. 
9. Sprinkle with regular white sugar, powdered sugar or flavored sugar such as cinnamon and sugar.

Calories
179

Fat (grams)
22

Sat. Fat (grams)
6

Carbs (grams)
22

Net carbs
17

Sugar (grams)
6

Created using The Recipes Generator

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