Making Anelletti al Forno Siciliana

Anelletti al Forno Siciliana is a very ancient Sicilian dish that comes from the islands capital city of Palermo. There are two things that people from Palermo are proud of, the cities patron saint, Santa Rosalia and Anelletti al Forno.

In Sicily, Christmas starts on December 8th, the day of the Immaculate Conception and lasts until Epiphany on January 6th. During this period everyone plays cards like mad, keeping up their strength with hearty dishes. This popular baked pasta is made using anelletti, a small ring-shaped pasta that is hard to find outside Sicily and no its not that round spaghetti that comes in tin cans in the UK that are enjoyed on toast.

Anelletti is traditionally used for this dish however you can substitute it with any short, stubby pasta shape, for example penne.

I always bring packs of anelletti home with me to the UK as it is also useful in soups and stews.


This classic pasta dish takes a lot of time to construct but it is so worth it. It is almost like baking a cake and you all know how much I love making cakes.

It is traditionally a Sunday lunch dish and is excellent for special occasions such as Christmas. It is also baked at Easter and the Sicilians also like to bake it to take on a picnic to the beach, as it tastes better after a couple of hours and will stay warm in the Sicilian sun. 

It is real genuine Sicilian family food.

The dish is like a taste bud explosion full of ingredients.

When in London I love to eat at Tasting Sicily UK Enzo's Kitchen near Piccadilly Circus and I always order the Anelletti alla Palermitana (below) which is one of Chef Enzo Oliveri's signature dishes, Enzo is originally from Palermo.


Inspired by our talented friend Chef Enzo, a couple of weekends ago I decided I wanted to attempt to make this dish, which at every stage appears to grow in stature. We were having some friends over for dinner so it was the perfect excuse for me to have a go at making this gastronomic Sicilian dish.

I started in the morning by boiling some eggs until they were hard boiled and blitzing some bread in a blender to make breadcrumbs.


Later on I made a traditional minced beef ragu sauce with the added addition of peas and cooked the anelletti until it was "al dente" adding it to the ragu sauce.


I lined a 23cm cake tin with greaseproof paper. I then cut an aubergine into slices and fried them in batches in Sicilian olive oil until they were golden brown, I was now ready to construct my dish.


First I sprinkled the breadcrumbs on the bottom of the tin then placed the aubergines slices neatly on top.


Then I put half the ragu sauce with the pasta on top of the aubergines.


For the next layer I sliced the hard boiled eggs and placed them on top of the ragu together with slices of ham and torn up pieces of mozzarella, traditionally you should use caciocavollo, pecorino or fontinella but these cheeses can be hard to find in the UK.


After this I added the remaining ragu and pasta and sprinkled grated parmesan cheese on top to cover. 


The tin was then put in the oven for 20 to 30 minute to bake.


Once baked I turned it upside down and out of the tin and Ecco qua (here it is) 


The perfect Anelletti al Forno Siciliana ... Buon apetito 😋


this is not anelletti ↓↓↓
but it still a nice 'British' snack on toast


If you enjoyed this Food Blog post
then you might also enjoy these ones from my archive:

"Making Panelle"
https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2018/01/making-panelle_14.html

"Making Arancini"
https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2017/02/making-arancini.html

Previous Blog post
"Christmas Taormina Style" ←

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visit: https://tastingsicily.restaurant/

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