Panzerotti — fried yeast-dough pockets with tomato and stringy mozzarella

Mix 400 g flour with the instant yeast, sugar and 8 g salt in a bowl. Add the lukewarm water and 20 g olive oil, mix and knead by hand for 8–10 minutes until smooth, soft and elastic. Shape into a ball, leave in the bowl tightly covered with a plate or lid and put in a warm place without drafts for 90–120 minutes, until roughly doubled in volume. If the kitchen is cool and the dough rises slowly, wait longer. Drain the mozzarella and make the sauce in the following steps during this first rise.

Remove the mozzarella from its brine and cut into 8–10 mm dice. Put in a strainer over a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 60 minutes. Then gently pat dry with paper towels and only now weigh out 240 g cheese for the filling. The stated weight is drained, dried mozzarella, not cheese together with its brine. Keep covered in the refrigerator until filling the pockets.

Put all the passata and 5 g olive oil in a small saucepan, then add 2 g salt and the oregano. Cook without a lid over medium-low heat for 10–15 minutes, stirring often, until thick with no separating water. A spatula drawn across the bottom should leave a track briefly. Transfer all the sauce to a small bowl and cool completely. Do not mix hot sauce with the mozzarella. Do not strain anything after adding the olive oil; use all the reduced sauce, not just part of it.

Gently deflate the risen dough and divide into eight equal pieces of about 85 g. Shape into taut balls, place separately on a lightly floured counter and cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 20–30 minutes until visibly puffy. Use only small amounts of flour from the dusting allowance. Divide all the cooled sauce and all the weighed mozzarella into eight equal filling portions, keeping the sauce and cheese separate until filling.

Pour the sunflower oil into a stable, heavy-bottomed pot about 24 cm across and at least 12 cm high. It should form a layer about 3 cm deep and not reach above half the pot’s height. Heat to 170–175°C. Only when the oil is ready, start filling the first pair of pockets; keep the remaining dough balls covered.

Roll out two balls separately into rounds about 16 cm across and 3–4 mm thick, dusting the counter very lightly. Do not dust the upper sealing edges with flour. Put one portion of cooled sauce and one portion of mozzarella in the center of each round, leaving about a 1.5 cm clean, dry border. Do not add more filling. Fold in half into a crescent, gently pushing air from the center toward the edge. Seal firmly with your fingers, then carefully press the edge with a fork without piercing the dough beside the filling. Do not trim the dough. Fry this pair immediately; do not prepare all eight filled panzerotti ahead of time.

Carefully lower two panzerotti at a time into the oil, leaving room around them. Fry for 4–5 minutes in total, turning during cooking, until both sides are evenly golden, puffy and lightly crisp. Maintain 170–175°C; if the shell darkens too quickly, lower the heat so the dough has time to cook through. Lift out with a slotted spoon onto paper towels. Let the oil return to the stated range between batches, and roll and fill the next pair only just before frying it. Fry all eight in four batches; including heating the oil and pauses, this takes about 35 minutes. After briefly cooling the first pocket, cut it open to check that the dough at the seam is cooked and puffy, with no raw gummy layer. Serve warm, two per serving; wait 2–3 minutes before eating because the cheese and sauce are very hot.