miadonata
Assistant Cook
My grandmother was from Bari, Italy and made "cookies" for special occassions, but never told anyone the recipe, or let us see exactly what she was mixing together. They were her "special" cookies and she took her recipes to the grave. She made a simple dough, rolled out thin, cut in long ribbons and inch wide. Sometimes she would leave them in ribbons about 3 inches long, sometime's she made loose knots. But she'd quickly deep fry them, drain them, and then plunge them into a pot of deep red wine syrup that had been made much earlier in the day, and was simmering/reducing on the stove for hours beforehand. There was a full bottle of some sort of red wine, mixed with a couple of pounds of sugar to start this syrup. I remember she'd also sometimes have a handful of fresh chicory in the wine too, but only cause I was nosey.... she would remove it before she let anyone else in the kitchen. The cousins have tried desperately to recreate this but no idea of the proportions? What kind of wine? What was in the dough? I've found all sort of fried cookies, usually with honey syrup, on other sites... b ut never this concoction, which was heaven. Any help???
