Kroshtole

We visited Mrs. Anita during the Shrovetide carnival. She fried the kroshtole for us and entrusted us with her own recipe. She was aided by her grandson Domen, who also likes to cook and attends a cooking school, too.

In cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the Italian Community of Piran, we have been conducting the so-called saltpan cuisine project for a number of years. Mrs. Anita Dessardo, who has been associated with the saltpans her entire life, has also worked with us several times. She began visiting the pans as early as 1955 when bringing lunch to her father, while later she helped her husband, who was also a saltpan worker, during salt harvesting in the saltpools at Lucija and Sečovlje. She also worked in the salt warehouses in Portorož, where she initially packed salt, and eventually worked in the canteen, where she cooked and served meals for all salt workers there.

 

Anita still keeps several old Istrian recipes. She baked very tasty bread for us, but she is also known for baking excellent kroshtole or hroshtole. Women usually fried this traditional pastry only during the Shrovetide carnival. Notes about this pastry and recipes for it can be found in the book titled Istrska kuhinja: Pr nes kuhemo pu naše (Istrian cuisine: We cook in our own way).

 

We visited Mrs. Anita during the Shrovetide carnival. She fried the kroshtole for us and entrusted us with her own recipe. She was aided by her grandson Domen, who also likes to cook and attends a cooking school, too. She told us that in the old days they didn't make the kroshtole so often, for they lived quite modestly in those times. The kroshtole were made predominantly during the Shrovetide carnival and for occasional personal celebration, such as a wedding. Today, however, she says that she fries them for almost every occasion. She added that people makes the kroshtole in their own way, according to their own taste.

 

 

 

 

Anita Dessardo's recipe:

 

1 kg of flour

 

0.2 kg of butter

 

3 yolks and 6 egg whites

 

1 dcl of white wine

 

1 teaspoon of salt

 

1 teaspoon of sugar

 

0.5 dcl of milk

 

oil for frying

 

powdered sugar for sprinkling

 

 

 

Try your hand at frying the kroshtole yourself!

 

Place a smallish pot with butter on the fire. When the butter is melted, mix in the milk, wine, salt and sugar.

Then tip the flour into a large bowl and make a small hole in the middle. Break 3 whole eggs and 3 yolks into it and mix them slightly with a fork. Then pour more butter and slowly mix it into the dough with a wooden spoon. When the dough starts to stick around the spoon, continue kneading with your hands. Then put the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead it with your hands until it becomes firm and does not stick to your fingers.

 

 

Then roll out the dough until very thin. Mrs. Anita and Domen used a pasta machine for rolling. They rolled out the dough in sections into several long strips.

 

 

Then cut narrow strips from the rolled out dough. These should be up to 5 cm wide and up to 30 cm long. Then make a knot in each strip.

 

  

 

 

Heat the oil in a small pot. When the oil gets hot, put three kroshtole in the pot, leave them for a few seconds, turn them over and after a few seconds place them out on paper to drain the oil. The kroshtole should be golden brown in colour. At the end, sprinkle the kroshtole with powdered sugar.

 

 

Enjoy your food!