''Struffoli'' (; , ), also known as Honey Balls, is a
Neapolitan dish made of deep fried balls of sweet dough. The dough is used in many Italian sweet treats such as ''
chiacchiere''. For ''struffoli'', the dough is formed in to balls about the size of marbles. Crunchy on the outside and light inside, ''struffoli'' are mixed with honey and other sweet ingredients and formed into mounds or rings. There are many different ways to flavour them, but the traditional way is to mix them in honey with ''diavulilli'' (
nonpareils sprinkles), cinnamon, and bits of orange rind. Naming varies by region: in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
they are also known as ''scalilli'', and in
Abruzzo
Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...
''cicerchiata''. They are often served at
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
and are sometimes served warm.
History
A similar dish is described by
Archestratus, an ancient Greek poet from
Gela
Gela (Sicilian and ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the regional autonomy, Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province o ...
, Sicily. It was called ''enkris'' ()—a dough-ball fried in olive oil, which he details in his ''Gastronomy''; a work now lost, but partially preserved in the ''
Deipnosophistae
The ''Deipnosophistae'' (, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. , where ''sophists'' may be translated more loosely as ) is a work written in Ancient Greek by Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of Greek literature, literary, Ancient history, h ...
'' of
Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...
, which mentions ''enkris'' thirteen times, in various
inflected
In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
forms. The most complete description of it in the ''Deipnosophists'' is a passage that reads:
The name ''struffoli'' originates from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
word ''strongoulos'', which means 'rounded'.
Similar dishes
* ''
Piñonate'' (Andalusia)
* ''
Gulab jamun'' (South Asia)
*
Croquembouche
A croquembouche () or ''croque-en-bouche'' is a French dessert consisting of choux pastry puffs piled into a cone and bound with threads of caramel. In Italy and France, it is often served at weddings, baptisms and First Communions.
Etymolog ...
(France)
* ''
Lokma'' (Mediterranean basin)
* ''
Pignolata'' (Sicily)
*
Teiglach
Teiglach , also spelled taiglach or teglach (, singular teigel, literally "little dough") are small, knotted pastries boiled in a honeyed syrup. They are a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish treat for Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Purim.
His ...
(Jewish cookies)
* ''
Çäkçäk'' (
Tatar,
Bashkir and Central Asian dish)
See also
*
List of Italian desserts and pastries
*
List of deep fried foods
*
List of doughnut varieties
Doughnuts are a type of List of fried dough foods, fried dough food. The following is a list of doughnut and fried dough pastry varieties.
Variations and specialties by region
The terms below constitute either names for different doughnut type ...
References
{{Pastries
Italian desserts
Christmas food
Neapolitan cuisine
Italian doughnuts