Italian Taralli – Savoury fennel seeds snacks

A simple mixture of flour, oil, water and wine enriched with a delicate scent of fennel seeds translates into “Taralli”, a savoury snack typical to Southern Italy.

I usually buy them when I visit Italy and I enjoy them as an aperitif with a glass of wine. I have always been intrigued as to how to make them.

I grew up in Northern Italy so the original recipe “does not run through my genes” as they say. This is why I asked my friend Rosetta to help me in this. Rosetta comes originally from Calabria and when she was 6 she moved to the UK with all her family. It was after the war when Italy was very poor. They brought nothing with them just their genuine desire to do well and to work hard.

Later Rosetta married Antonio, an Italian from Benevento and they had three beautiful children together. Over the years they have done quite well: first they ran an Italian restaurant and then they successfully specialized in hairdressing. Their salon is now an award winning one and it is being managed by their son.

I love how Rosetta kept her Italian heritage over the years and her loving and caring ways so typical of an Italian mama. In fact she reminds me of home!

Let’s have a look at the recipe. There might be a bit of work involved as you need to double cook them: first you boil them, then you bake them in the oven, but they are certainly worth a try and they can last well for a week stored in an airtight container.

Next time I will be sharing Rosetta’s recipe for sweet taralli.

• Prep Time : 30 minutes
• Cook Time : 40 minutes
• Yield : 100

Ingredients

• plain flour – 500 g – 4 +¼ cup
• dry white wine – 150 ml – 5 fl oz
• water – 50 ml – 1.7 fl oz
• olive oil – 125 ml – 4.2 fl oz
• salt – 2 tsp
• dried fennel seeds – 1 tbsp

Instructions

Put the flour, the water, the oil, salt, wine and the fennel seeds in a bowl

Mix with a spoon until all the ingredients are well incorporated, then working with your hands make a compact smooth dough

Divide the dough and roll it into small cylinders measuring approx 8 cm or 3 inch long and 1 cm or 0.4 inch thick.

Cross them together and press both ends to form a little bow

Thanks Rosetta! They look great!

Now let them rest for 15 minutes covered with a cloth.

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