Chiacchiere

The story

Chiacchiere is one of many names for the thin, crisp strips of fried dough that fill Italian pastry shops and home kitchens during Carnival. In Tuscany they are cenci or bugie, in Rome and Lazio frappe, in Venice galani, in Emilia-Romagna sfrappole, and in Piedmont and Liguria bugie. Italian food writers trace the custom to the frictilia of ancient Rome, fritters of flour and eggs fried in lard and handed out in the streets during the Saturnalia. When the Church folded Carnival into its calendar, these days of frying and feasting became the last indulgence before the forty days of Lent. The dough is plain: flour, eggs, a little sugar and butter, lemon zest and a splash of grappa or wine. What matters is thinness. Cooks roll it through a pasta machine to 1 or 2 millimeters, cut it with a fluted wheel and fry it for seconds, until it blisters. In 2027 Carnival peaks on Martedì Grasso, February 9, the day before Ash Wednesday. Fry a batch the weekend before, store it airtight, and add the powdered sugar just before serving.