If you remove the tube too soon, the dough won’t have set, and the dough
tube can collapse in on itself, impeding the amount of ricotta the tube can
receive later. Never forget the goal

of maximum ricotta real estate. And

don’t be scared about handling the fried dough – while it’s hot, it’s still a
little malleable.

Fry for 1 more minute, holding the cannolo submerged to target fry
the paler patches.

Assess the colour and take the fried cannolo out when it is one shade
lighter than you’d like. They’ll darken a smidge post-fry. Drain on the
wire rack.

If the test fry is good, cut as many circles as you can. Remove the excess
and layer the offcuts, wrap and smoosh gently together. Rest at room
temperature for 10 minutes to minimise shrinkage before re-rolling.

Repeat the fry steps above. If you only have four tubes, you can reload
later. Cover the remaining circles with a clean tea towel (dish towel) to
prevent them drying out. To reload: drain the cannoli on the cooling
rack and allow the metal tubes to cool to a handle-able heat for the
next dough circles – no need to wash them in between batches.

Keep rolling and frying the remaining dough. Find your fry rhythm  –
load tube, fry, cool, reload tube, fry, cool … and watch those crisp
soldiers line up in no time. When all the tubes are fried, re-roll the
offcuts, then fry any excess from the re-roll as a little snacky crostoli
(see A daptrix, page 230).

Cool the cannoli completely before filling – around 30 minutes. To
finish the filling, smooth the cold custard with a stiff spatula in a large
bowl. Chop chocolate and pistachios separately to fine shards and
add to the custard along with the grated lemon zest. Push the drained
ricotta through a sieve into the bowl with a stiff plastic spatula or your
fingers. Gently stir everything together.

Sieving ricotta does a thing that no other method can do – it rids the ricotta
of lumps while maintaining texture and also giving it airiness. Ricotta
becomes a wet paste if beaten or whizzed.

Scoop the filling into a piping (icing) bag and set aside. Keep the
bag chilled if you are serving the cannoli much later, but the filling
shouldn’t be ice cold when it is piped in.

To fill, snip the piping bag tip – wide enough to let out the pieces of
fruit, nut and chocolate. The aperture on the piping bag should be
slightly smaller than the diameter of the cannoli hole. Chop the extra
pistachios and set aside.
continued …