Cannoli

Cannoli are Sicilian pastries made of a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta cheese filling, typically nine to twenty centimeters long. Food historians trace possible origins to Caltanissetta, Sicily, in the ninth through eleventh centuries. On the Italian mainland the pastry is called cannolo siciliano. Regional versions vary the garnish: Palermo tops its cannoli with candied orange zest, Catania favors chopped pistachios, and Ramacca incorporates purple artichokes into the filling. The name comes from the Sicilian word for cane or tube, since the fried shell is formed as a hollow cylinder.