Calcioni di Ricotta — Sweet Ricotta Pastries of Molise

Molise — throughout the region, associated specifically with Easter. Calcioni are prepared for the Easter table in virtually every Molisano household and represent the convergence of the spring ricotta season (ewes have been milking since late winter) with the Easter celebration.

Calcioni (also called calzoni dolci in some variants) are the definitive sweet pastry of Molise at Easter: small, half-moon shaped pastries with a short, lard-enriched pastry dough encasing a filling of fresh sheep's ricotta, egg, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest. They are fried in lard (traditionally) or olive oil until golden, then dusted with icing sugar or honey. The combination of the barely-sweet, rich pastry and the lightly sweetened, citrus-scented ricotta is one of the most satisfying expressions of southern Italian pasticceria — not cloying, not dramatic, simply correct.

• Fried short pastry filled with sweetened sheep's ricotta — the Sicilian cassatella and the Molisano calcione are structural twins: different shaping and occasion, identical filling principle of sheep's ricotta lightly sweetened with citrus → Cassatella di Sant'Agata Sicilian
• Pastry filled with semolina or cheese custard and dusted with icing sugar — the Mediterranean tradition of cheese-filled pastry dusted with sugar appears across Greek-Italian traditions; bougatsa uses phyllo and semolina cream rather than short pastry and ricotta → Bougatsa Greek

The fried pastry is light and slightly flaky — the lard gives it a clean richness. Inside, the sheep's ricotta filling is lightly sweet, perfumed with cinnamon and lemon, with the characteristic slight tang of sheep's dairy. Under the icing sugar, they are small and deceptively substantial — one or two is enough.