Every once in a while I receive a letter that makes all the hard work of maintaining a website worthwhile. This is such a letter:

Dear Cassandra,
    Recently I went to New Castle [PA}, where I happily came across your "Immigrant's Kitchen Italian" cookbook. As I was looking through the
book, when I spotted the word "Monessen," I decided I had to buy it;
since I have heard so much about this town.
    My father - who is 92 years young, came to Monessen in 1920, from
Calabria, Italy. He lived with different Italian families, trying to save
money for his future family.
    I enjoyed reading about your family and all its customs. You did a
superb job [thank you] in writing this book - a book that every Italian-
American family should own. That is the reason I'm writing this letter.
I would like to order six books for my four sons and two nieces. I'd like to
pass on some of our treasured heritage.
    I also have been looking for a recipe on how to make sfogliatelli. My
father had talked about these pastries that his mother made at
Christmas time. I especially need to know the recipe for the dough
and the directions how to make the pocket which I think is pretty tricky.
I also need the filling recipe. I would like to surprise him this Christmas,
with some of them.
    My father is Francesco Spadafora. Maybe some of your old timers
remember him. He is still very active with his garden, and still makes
his own wine. We are very blessed. We thank all the people of Monessen
who helped him in those very lean years when he came to America. We
were separated from him till 1947. I remember vividly during World War
II when the Americans invaded Italy. One soldier from Monessen came to
see his grandmother in Rogliano, Prov of Oosenza and my mother went
to see him and asked about if he knew my father, and he said, yes."
It was the best news my mother could hear, since she had not had any communication with him throughout the war. I wish I knew the soldier's
name! I have many pleasant memories of all the American soldiers
who gave us food and medicine at a time when in our area there was
a typhoid fever epidemic. Many people died, but our family was spared,
because of the American generosity. My twin sister was saved since she
obtained the much needed medicine.
    I hope to hear from you soon, and I hope you will find the recipe for the sfogliatelli.
                                                            Vincenzina Grasso
                                                            Sharon, PA 16146

    Sfogliatella, as you well know Vincenzina, is a fan or shell-shaped pastry. It is heavy because it is filled with semolina, ricotta, candied fruit, and nuts. It is Neapolitan in origin, so how your Calabrian family was introduced to them is a bit of a mystery.
    What is not a mystery is that sfogliatelli originated in the Middle East. Yes, the Arabs brought the art to Europe and it became the millefeuille of France, the strudel of Austria, the millefoglie of Sicily, and the sfogliatelli of Naples. The original recipes used a rendered pork fat called strutto, but today the fat is replaced with butter.
    We have given the pastry recipe too! But, one can buy perfectly good frozen puff pastry in any super market or specialty store if the puff appears a bit overwhelming.

Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup semolina flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup lard or better, melted

    Combine flours, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Add butter, cutting it into the dough until blended. Slowly add water. Knead until firm. Form into a ball, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
 
Filling

1 cup milk 1/4 cup semolina flour 1 cup ricotta cheese 1 large egg, beaten 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon of either     candied orange peel     lemon zest     candied fruit of choice pinch of cinnamon confectioners sugar parchment paper, optional

     Place a saucepan over medium heat. Add milk. Bring to a boil and slowly add semolina flour. Stir constantly so as to avoid lumps. Simmer three to four minutes, remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and allow to cool.
    After five minutes add ricotta (which has been passed through a sieve), egg, sugar, candied fruit, and sugar to semolina. Beat well. Set aside.

    Remove dough from refrigerator. Divided it into two equal parts. Place on a dusted pastry board and roll with a rolling pin into an 18 inch square. It will become very, very, thin.

    Brush the thin pastry with butter. Begin at one end and roll it like a jelly roll. Cut the roll into a number of 3-4 inch pieces. Pick up one piece of the dough in your hand. Press your thumb in the center of the pastry and push it down to form a hole like a cup.

    Fill the cup with 2 tablespoons of filling. Fold the cup until the open edges touch. Gently press the edges together to seal the pastry. Set it in front of you. Gently pull out the sides of the front to form a shell. Brush the top with beaten egg yolk.

    Repeat above until all pastry and filling are used. Preheat over to 425 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the shells on the paper and bake for 15 minutes or until brown. Let the pastry cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes. It will harden a bit. Then place on a rack. When ready to serve and completely cool, sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

  This letter and the accompanying recipe first appeared in the column Cassandra Can You Tell Me? in the Italian Journal of Food and Wine.