Discover Italian Carnival pastry

One of the most eagerly awaited festivities in the lagoon every year is Carnival. With its masks, costumes, palaces and elegant dances, it is a moment of celebration for the entire population and the many tourists who come to Venice and the islands to enjoy this unique atmosphere. But there is another detail that is impossible to ignore … What are we talking about? The typical Italian Carnival pastries!

Here are three delicacies that you must try during this period.

Fritters
The typical dessert of the Venice Carnival is undoubtedly the frittelle (or ‘frittole’ in Venetian). These are fried doughnuts filled with cream, chocolate, zabaglione or raisin and pine nuts. Fritters have a fascinating history, so much so that it was chosen as the national pastry of the Serenissima Republic. Up to the 19th century, in the Venetian streets, you could find small wooden huts where ‘fritoleri’ prepared and handed down this true culinary art.

Galani, the Mardi Gras fritters
There have always been those who love fritters and those who prefer the so-called ‘crostoli’ and ‘chiacchiere’: this pastry is a must on tables all over Italy, but has many regional variations. Galani is the typical Venetian version: while ‘crostoli’ are rectangular and very simple, the Venetian pastry is shaped like a thin, elegant ribbon (‘galan’ in Venetian).

“Castagnole”
Carnival pastries do not stop here: ‘castagnole’ are small balls of fried dough, similar in appearance to chestnuts, that can be filled with custard or cream, but also with rum and chocolate. This dessert has a very ancient history, so much so that its recipe can be found in recipe books dating back to the 1600s and 1700s.

Now that you know three Italian Carnival pastries, all you have to do is taste them in one of the many pastry shops around the lagoon.