In Altomonte we fry these light, airy cookies topped with powdered sugar for every wedding, baptism, communion or any celebration for that matter. In the North, they are used to celebrate Carnevale.

Ingredients
6 Eggs
6 cups Tipo 00 Flour, plus more as needed
6 TBLS Sugar, granulated
1-Tsp Salt
1/2 gallon oil, vegetable
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Crack eggs into a large bowl.
Add sugar, salt, oil and whisk until incoporated.
Add 6 cups flour and knead until smooth.*


See Nonna’s Notes for stand mixer usage.
Wrap dough in saran wrap and let rest an hour at room temperature.
Grab a large cookie sheet, so it’s ready to go once we need it.
Cut into 5 segments and roll out with a rolling pin.
Crank through pasta machine in three stages.

You want to bring the dough thickness down to that of a dime.

And you want to do this in stages.
All machines vary, we ran it through at the thickest setting of #1, twice.
Then setting #2, twice.
At this point you may want to cut the dough in half or thirds to make it easier to manage.
Finally setting #4, just once.

Lay the long newly pressed sheet onto a dry board and using your pastry edger cut long, 2″-3″ strips, each with a 1.5″ slit in the middle


Fold the dough in on itself to form a ‘bow’ and place on dry cookie sheet.

You will want to keep the cookie sheet covered the entire time so that the nocche don’t dry out.
In a deep, heavy-bottom pan (cast iron dutch oven works great and holds heat well), heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Using a scrap of dough, test oil. When it’s ready it will puff up and float to top.
Fry until golden, remove from oil and place in a colander in a bowl with paper towels in-betwen to absorb excess oil.

Sprinkle with podwered sugar before serving.

Enjoy!

Nonna’s Notes:
You will need a manual pasta machine for this recipe.
Also a pastry edger makes for a pretty finish.
Crack eggs one at a time into a little cup before adding into large batch.
This way, if you get a bad egg, you won’t spoil the rest.
Keep the dough and nocche covered in plastic (we like to use a plain, clear & clean trashbag) unless you are working it, this will prevent drying out.
You don’t want them to dry out, because they won’t puff up as nicely when frying.
You may also use a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment instead of hand kneading.