Pardulas: the recipe for Sardinian casadinas

Pardulas, also known as casadinas or formaggelle, are typical Sardinian desserts that are prepared for the Easter holidays: small baskets of crispy puff pastry stuffed with soft ricotta cheese, and flavored with lemon and orange peel and saffron, and then decorated with colored sprinkles or simply with powdered sugar. For the preparation it is important to use a compact and dry ricotta cheese, preferring the sheep one to the vaccine one. You can serve the pardulas after Easter lunch or take them as a dessert for Easter Monday. Making them is really simple, here's how.

How to make Pardulas

Start preparing the filling: put in a bowl the well-drained ricotta cheese, the whole egg, the yolks, the lemon and orange peel, the flour, the sugar, the saffron and mix (1) until obtaining a homogeneous mixture. Now prepare the pastry: knead the flour with a little warm water, add one egg white at a time, lard and salt. Knead until you get an elastic dough. With the help of the rolling pin, roll out a thin sheet (2) and make a small disc of about 8-10 cm in diameter with a pastry cutter. (3)

Then place a ricotta ball on each small disc and raise the edge of the pastry around the filling to create a hem. (4) Close it with pinches to give the pardulas the right shape. Then place them on a dripping-pan lined with baking paper. (5) Cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until browned. Once ready, let the pardulas cool, brush them with lukewarm honey and sprinkle with colored sprinkles. Your pardulas are ready to be served. (6)

Tips

If you want to prepare the pardulas according to the traditional recipe, use the grated semolina or semolina flour instead of the flour 00 type: the pardulas will be more crispy. Alternatively, use half a dose of semolina and half of flour type 00.

If you want to make some swollen pardulas, add a little baking powder to the ricotta cheese mixture and let it rest for about half an hour.

You can also brush the pardulas with an egg yolk, before baking them: in this case do not use honey. Instead of sprinkles, you can use simple powdered sugar.