🇮🇹 Italian · Dessert
🥐 Sfogliatelle Napoletane
Sfogliatelle Ricce
Neapolitan pastry famous for its many crisp, shell-like layers, encasing a filling of semolina, ricotta, and candied fruit — among the most technically demanding pastries in Italian baking.
The name means 'little leaves' or 'layers,' referring to the hundreds of paper-thin layers created by rolling the dough impossibly thin, brushing with lard, and coiling it before cutting and shaping each pastry into its distinctive clam-shell form.
Ingredients
Equipment: Pasta machine, Rolling pin, Baking sheet
- 500 g (4 cups) 00 flour
- 150 ml (⅔ cup) water
- 1 tbsp honey
- Pinch of salt
- 250 g (1⅛ cups) lard or shortening, softened, for laminating
- 250 ml (1 cup) water, for the semolina filling
- 100 g (½ cup) semolina
- 250 g (1 cup) ricotta
- 100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 50 g (⅓ cup) candied orange peel, finely chopped
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Method
- Combine the flour, water, honey, and salt into a firm dough, kneading until smooth. Wrap and rest for 1 hour.
- Roll the dough as thin as possible using a pasta machine, working in sections, brushing each thin sheet generously with softened lard before rolling the next section directly on top.
- Once you have a long, laminated strip, roll it tightly into a log and wrap well; chill for at least 1 hour, or freeze for easier slicing.
- For the filling, bring the water to a boil and whisk in the semolina, cooking until thickened. Let cool, then beat in the ricotta, sugar, egg, candied orange peel, and cinnamon.
- Slice the chilled dough log into rounds about 1cm thick.
- Working with one round at a time, press and stretch it with your thumbs to open up the coiled layers into a cone shape, forming a pocket.
- Fill each cone generously with the semolina-ricotta filling and pinch to seal, shaping into the characteristic shell form.
- Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 20–25 minutes until deeply golden and the layers have visibly separated and crisped.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.
Chef Tips
- Rolling the dough as thin as humanly possible is what creates the hundreds of characteristic crisp layers — this takes real patience.
- Keeping the dough well-chilled makes it far easier to slice cleanly without the layers smearing together.
- These are best eaten the day they're baked, while the layers are at their crispest.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Not rolling the dough thin enough, resulting in fewer, thicker layers rather than the signature delicate shatter.
- Overfilling the pastries, causing the filling to leak out during baking.
- Skipping the chilling step, which makes the laminated dough very difficult to slice neatly.
Nutrition (per serving)
Health Benefits
- An indulgent, occasional treat providing some protein from the ricotta filling.
Cultural Note
Sfogliatelle originated in a convent near Amalfi before becoming a signature pastry of Naples, where it remains a fixture of breakfast pastry cases across the city.
Storage & Serving
Storage: Best eaten the day they are made; keep at room temperature for up to 1 day.
Reheating: Warm briefly in the oven to help re-crisp the layers if slightly softened.
Serve with: Espresso