Panzarotti are fried pasta sacks filled with cheese, tomato sauce, vegetables, and cured meats. They originated in southern Italy and are popular in Italian communities in North America. The dish can be made with various fillings and is often served as finger food.
Panzarotti are sacks of pasta filled with ingredients such as cheese, tomato sauce, vegetables, and cured meats before being sealed and fried. You might consider panzarotti a form of deep-fried ravioli, or a softer, deep-fried version of calzone, another popular Italian staple. In addition to being served in Italy, this fried dish can also be found along the East Coast of the United States, especially in New Jersey, where a large and proud Italian population serves up an assortment of traditional Italian dishes.
In Italy, this dish is better known as panzerotti, with an “E,” while in the United States, it’s spelled with an A; Americans also treat the word “panzarotti” as singular, referring to one panzarotti and many panzarotti, despite the fact that the word is actually plural in Italian. Regardless of how you spell or pluralize it, this dish tends to be a hit with people who try it.
Panzarotti originated in southern Italy, particularly in the Naples area. They began spreading to Northern Italy around the 1940s, at which point they also made the leap into the Italian communities of North America, some of which have close ties to their home country. The foundation of the dish is a fluffy, pasta-like dough, which is rolled out before being stuffed and then pinched closed.
While the panzarotti are fried, they inflate with hot air and steam, thanks to the juicy ingredients inside. It’s not recommended to bite into a freshly baked panzarotti from the fryer, because hot melted cheese can feel like napalm in your mouth. Instead, many people open their panzarotti before eating them, allowing the steam to escape so it doesn’t burn them.
You can make any number of variations on panzarotti, from vegan versions filled with ingredients like spinach and tofu to meat panzarotti filled with cured meats like ham. Most panzarotti also include a healthy pile of cheeses like mozarella or ricotta. The dish can be eaten with a knife and fork on a plate or treated as finger food; people who eat panzarotti from their hands may want to wrap them in wax paper to prevent burns and keep their hands clean.
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