Filled to order, because a filled shell is a soft shell
Cannoli & Zeppole
Shells filled to order so they stay crisp, and zeppole fried when you ask for them rather than kept warm.
A cannolo is a crisp fried shell and a soft sweet ricotta filling, and the moment the two meet the shell begins to go soft. A tray of pre-filled cannoli in a display case is a tray of cannoli that were good an hour ago. So ours are filled with a piping bag while you wait, which takes about forty seconds and is the difference between the thing being good and the thing being fine.
The ricotta is the same whole-milk one that goes on the white pizza, drained overnight, then sweetened and folded with chopped pistachio and candied orange peel. It is not especially sweet, which is how it should be — the sweetness is meant to come from the shell and the sugar dusted over it.
Zeppole are fried to order in the same small pan as the rice balls and thrown straight into icing sugar. There is no way to hold a zeppola. Anybody selling you one that has been sitting is selling you a doughnut that has given up.
What goes on it
The shells
Fried in the morning and kept dry and unfilled. They will keep crisp for a day; filled, about ten minutes.
The filling
Whole-milk ricotta drained overnight, sweetened lightly, folded with chopped pistachio and candied orange peel.
The ends
Dipped in chopped pistachio as they are piped.
The zeppole
The same enriched dough as the hero rolls, dropped into hot oil and rolled in icing sugar.
How it is made here
Shells kept unfilled
Always. This is the only rule that matters here.
Piped to order
From both ends, so the middle is filled rather than hollow.
Sugar at the last moment
Icing sugar dissolves into a filled cannolo within a few minutes.
Zeppole fried on the spot
Four or five minutes. They are meant to be eaten too hot.
Cannoli & Zeppole — what it costs
- Cannolo$5
- Three cannoli$13
- Zeppole, half dozen$8
Prices include every topping listed above. Extras are $3 for vegetables and $4 for meats. Prices change when our costs do; the menu here is the menu in the shop.
Before you order this
A shared flour kitchen, and what that rules out. Our kitchen handles wheat flour in open air all day, along with milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts and fish. Flour becomes airborne every time a dough ball is opened, and it settles on every surface in the room, including the peels, the oven floor, the cutting board and the wheel. We can tell you what we put on a pizza, and we will tell you honestly. We cannot tell you that anything leaving this kitchen is free of an allergen, and we will not say it. If a reaction would send you to hospital, this is not a safe kitchen for you, and we would far rather say so than take the order.
The kitchen is one room. Every pizza here is opened on the same bench, baked on the same floor and cut with the same wheel, and that is true of this one as much as any other. The pages on allergens and cross-contact and vegetarian, vegan and dietary questions set out plainly what we can and cannot tell you, including the things most shops leave you to assume.
The rest of the menu
Other things worth ordering
Heroes & Subs
Seeded rolls baked here each morning, filled to order — the Italian combination, chicken parm, meatball, or aubergine.
From $12
Baked Pasta
Baked ziti and lasagne from the same sauce as the pizzas, finished under the mozzarella in a small steel pan.
From $15
Salads
A chopped Italian salad with an oregano vinaigrette, and a caprese when the tomatoes are worth it — which is not all year, and we will say so.
From $12Asked at the counter
Cannoli & Zeppole — questions
Can I order a tray of cannoli for a party?
Yes, and we would send the shells and the filling separately with a piping bag, so you fill them there. Sending them filled means they arrive soft, and we would rather hand you an assembly job than a disappointment.
Do the shells contain nuts?
The shells do not; the filling has pistachio in it and is dipped in more. We also handle tree nuts elsewhere on the bench — please read the allergens page.
Is there anything without ricotta?
The zeppole. There is nothing else on the dessert menu, because there are two desserts and both are made properly rather than eight that are not.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.