sfogliatella

A sfogliatella is pulled and folded into dozens of paper-thin layers that shatter when bitten. The name traces to the Italian verb sfogliare, meaning to leaf through or to unfold as leaves do. The feminine past participle of sfogliare is sfogliata, and sfogliatella is the diminutive of that past participle. The pastry is named for an action: the little leafed-open thing, capturing the result of the technique rather than the dough itself.

The verb sfogliare descends from Old Italian foglia (leaf), which traces back to Latin folium. This same root produced Italian foglio (sheet or page), the botanical term fogliame (foliage), and the technical pastry word sfogliatura, meaning the act of laminating dough into layers. The metaphor of unfolding leaves runs through every stage of the word's history.

The pastry is credited to the convent of Santa Rosa at Conca dei Marini on the Amalfi Coast, where nuns made it sometime in the 17th century. A Neapolitan pastry maker named Pasquale Pintauro acquired the recipe around 1818 and opened a shop on Via Toledo in Naples. His shop became the commercial standard, and the sfogliatella moved from monastic kitchen to street food.

Two forms compete in Neapolitan bakeries. The sfogliatella riccia has the ruffled, crunchy shell made from laminated pastry; the sfogliatella frolla uses a softer shortcrust. Both hold the same filling: ricotta mixed with semolina, candied citrus peel, and cinnamon. The riccia is more difficult to produce and is considered the original form.