What i really love about Italy, well one of the many things, is that, you can still find shops that sell just one or to products, which they have been doing for years, decades or even centuries. They follow beautiful traditions, love what they are doing and do it so well, that it´s the best thing in the world. We found a small joint ecxatly like that(not by accident, we were shooting a documentary on Italian food culture) and here´s the story of the Rainone family and its recipe for the most delicious doughnuts called Bomboloni and Frati which the family, by the way, has been making since 1920…

Let´s make it clear: the Bomboloni are the ones with sweet pastry cream and Frati are the Doughnut shaped with the famous hole. The Rainone family sells only these two types of sweets – and that´s it! Well, almost. In the winter time they add fried Polenta, called Scagliozzi, to their sortiment and the Bomboloni come in three different variants; filled respectively with pastry cream, Ricotta cream and the mmmhhlicious chocolate cream.

Here´s the recipe for Bomboloni(fantastic name) filled with pastry cream.

1. Make the pastry cream following our 5 minute recipe here

2. work the flour, sugar, butter, the grated lemon zest, salt and the yeast dissolved in water into a non sticky dough – almost as it is a bread dough. Even better, use a stand mixer and beat the dough on medium speed.

3. Leave the dough, patted into the shape of a ball, to rest at room temperature in the mixing bowl, covered with a tablecloth, for one hour.

4. Punch down dough. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface. It has to be 1cm high. Use a 5-7 centimeters cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circles.

5. Cook in frying oil at 180 degrees celsius turning over the Bomboloni as soon as they start to puff. Cook until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the oil and leave them to rest for a minute on paper towel.Toss in sugar to coat.

6. Cut a hole in the Bomboloni with the tip of a knife and fill a little cream into the cake using a piping bag. Leave a small dot of cream on the top as decoration.

Ingredients serves 4

300g flour

50g sugar

50g butter

20g yeast and 150-200ml of water

Grated zest from 1 lemon

a pinch of salt

Cooking oil for frying

Visit the Rainone family and their Antica Friggitoria on Via del Cardinale in Livorno, Toscana