We called them “Grandma’s pretzels” and they were little rings of fennel flavor dough, alternately crunchy and chewy. But the official name is “taralli”, and if you go to southern Italy you see them everywhere. Flavored with fennel or pepper and occasionally almonds, they are great with a glass of wine and sliced salami. Often taralli are made with lard which makes them flakey, or olive oil which gives them more of a crunch, taralli are gaining popularity in Tuscany and regions up north.
Grandma’s pretzels were both chewy and crunchy, which you don’t get in store bought versions. Shaped into small rings or knots, she made bags of them and brought them out for cocktail hour, which was taken seriously in my grandfather’s home.
I recently decided to pull out her recipe when my niece, Nastasia, was visiting and we had a nice little salami we were going to slice for dinner. It gave me the chance to pass it on to the next generation. We had so much fun making them that she carefully wrote the recipe to replicate them at home.
They’re easy to make. You begin with a simple bread dough, give it minimal time to raise and then roll them out and shape them. Thirty seconds in boiling salted water and then 20 minutes in a hot oven and you have a lovely, homemade pretzel.
Taralli – southern Italian pretzels
6 cups flour
1 envelope yeast, dissolved in 1 cup water
2 teas salt
¼ cup fennel seed (or 2 tbsp black pepper)
¾ cup olive oil
Combine flour, salt and fennel seed, make a well and add the water and yeast and oil. Mix together until it forms a stiff dough, then knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover and let it rest 15 minutes.
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.
Take a quarter of the dough and roll it flat with a rolling pin. Cut ropes and roll them thin, less than 1/4” and 3” long; form each piece into a ring and secure. When you have your work surface filled, pick them up and plunge them into the boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Pull them out with a spider or slotted spoon onto paper, then place them on parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake at 400’ until lightly browned.
Allow them to cool before putting them in plastic bags to save. Serve with any Italian cured pork product. Buon Appetito!