On a recent super top secret important Greenpointers business meeting, I needed some sweet and Lauren at Milk n’ Roses described an Italian pastry stuffed with cheese and flavored ever so slightly with orange. “Give me that!”

What came was a sfogliatella, so I know why she didn’t even try to pronounce it. (Sf-oy-yuh-tell-uh) Crazy Italians! Who cares how to say it? It’s delicious and you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full anyway.

After working at an Italian bakery as a teenager in Queens, I quickly got sick of all the cannolis, rainbow cookies and the collect calls from the bakery owner’s mafioso son in jail, but I never got sick of the sfogliatelle (that’s plural).

Sfogliatelle are Nonna, my Sicilian grandmother’s, favorite dessert so it’s always in the box of pastries we bring to her house when we have our traditional Sunday eat-until-you-pass-out feast.

It  is crispy dough infinitely layered into the shaped of a shell and inside is soft and not too sweet ricotta with a nice citrus tang and dusted with powdered sugar. Try one next time you’re at Milk n’ Roses (1110 Manhattan Ave), they’re irresistible!

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Join the Conversation

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  1. Cannoli are overrated, Perhaps if you have never eaten a real one in Sicily. Their sheer size is enough to give women wet dreams and their flavor alone is enough to make one go into spasmodic orgasms of delightful culinary fulfillment. And please, as a public service the S is not necessary. Cannoli is the plural of cannolo. Italian is not one of these silly languages that make plurals just by adding an S. It’s a real language for real people. Now, in defense of sfogliatelle, once you eat one, sfogliatella, in Naples you will never eat one anywhere else even from some arriviste hipster joint. The sfogliatella may not be as delicious as a cannolo but those in Napleas are a delight. So please no more ethnic slurs. Cannoli rae overrated, my arse. Ciao and tante belle cose.

  2. This article and comment thread are fantastic! I do want to add that we actually get them shipped from Napoli and bake them here! I also practice my pronunciation on a daily bases! I’m getting there!

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