Lemon & Pistachio Cannoli

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 300 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• 4 tbsp marsala wine
• 150 g greek-style yoghurt
• 50 g caster sugar
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 l sunflower oil
• lemon, zested and juiced
• 112 tbsp lemon, finely chopped
• 0 .5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• filling:
• 400 g ricotta cheese
• 150 g mascarpone
• 75 g pistachio, chopped
• 150 g icing sugar, plus more for serving

Method

1. Sift the flour, caster sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and a pinch of salt into a large bowl — the salt is small but vital, it sharpens the lemon and keeps the shells from tasting flat. Make a well in the centre and add the lemon zest, marsala and egg yolk. Set the white aside in a small bowl for sealing later.
2. Pour in the melted butter and bring everything together with your hands until shaggy. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2–3 minutes until smooth and elastic — it should feel like a firm earlobe. Cover with an inverted bowl and rest for 20 minutes. This relaxes the gluten so the shells blister properly when fried; skip the rest and they'll fry up tough and bubble-free.
3. While the dough rests, beat the ricotta, mascarpone, yoghurt and icing sugar together in a bowl until smooth and silky — about a minute. Add the lemon zest and the lemon juice and beat again briefly; the acid wakes the dairy up and stops the filling tasting one-note sweet. Taste it now: a tiny pinch of salt to balance the sugar, more lemon if it's shy. Fold through the chopped pistachios, cover and chill until needed.
4. Set up a pasta machine at one end of your worktop and dust the other end with flour. Divide the rested dough into three, keeping the pieces you aren't working on covered to stop them drying out.
5. Flatten one piece with a rolling pin to about 5 mm thick, then feed it through the widest setting of the pasta machine. Fold in half and pass through again. Step the machine down a notch at a time, dusting with flour as needed, until the dough is whisper-thin — almost translucent. You should be able to see the shadow of your hand through it.
6. Cut 10 cm rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. Wrap each round around a cannoli tube, brushing the overlap with a dab of egg white to seal. Keep the white off the metal itself or the shells will weld on and tear when you try to slide them free.
7. Heat the sunflower oil in a deep, heavy pan to 170–180°C, checking with a digital thermometer — guess this temperature and the shells either drink oil or burn before they blister. Lower in 2–3 wrapped tubes at a time, no more; crowd the pan and the temperature plummets and the shells go greasy instead of crisp. Fry for 1–2 minutes, turning, until deeply golden and blistered all over.
8. Lift out with tongs onto kitchen paper. As soon as they're cool enough to handle but still warm, gently twist the tubes free. Taste a shard of shell — it should shatter cleanly and taste of butter, lemon and a whisper of salt. Repeat with the remaining dough.
9. Once the shells are completely cold and crisp, spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a wide plain nozzle and pipe generously into both ends of each shell, so the filling bulges proudly. Fill them at the last minute — the shells go soft within an hour of meeting the ricotta.
10. To serve: dip the exposed filling at each end into the extra chopped pistachios, dust the shells heavily with icing sugar, and finish with a flick of finely grated lemon zest over the top. Eat straight away, while the shells still shatter.