Panzerotti - bánh quai vạc in Italian style

When I stayed for a few days in Verona (Italy), one morning when I passed by some bread shop, saw a cake which remind me our popular deep-fried cake in half-moon shape - bánh quai vạc (or bánh xếp, bánh gối). I was really curious and loved to taste it. It's called "panzerotti" - a traditional deep-fried cake from Bari. Very similar to our bánh quai vạc but much bigger, almost double, triple in size and the filling was purely Italian : mozzarella, sausage, tomato sauce...

                      Panzerotti in the middle - on left and right of the shelf display in Verona (Italy)  

I quite like bánh quai vạc but to be honest I didn't eat it for very long time, so I decided to experiment my first "panzerotti" for our New Year Eve party at our friend's house.

                    Panzerotti - similar to our bánh quai vạc but much bigger in size! 

Here's the original recipe, that I found on the internet but after the first trial, I would recommend you to make some small changes for the dough, and regarding the filling - up to your imagination, your taste. I'm sure you will get a much better "bánh quai vạc" in Italian style!

                   Ready for the first panzerotti! 

           
If we follow the original recipe from the site I recommend I may suggest you to add a bit more milk (150 ml i/o 100 ml), two eggs and more olive oil (4 or 5 tablespoons i/o only 2 in the recipe). As the result when I followed the recipe my dough was a bit dry!

             Panzerotti filling - up to your taste, creativity, mine was the sweet sausage with pepper! 

I tried to keep the Italian taste, so I got mozzarella, cheddar, Italian sweet sausage and peppers, plus the tomato sauce and a bit of chilli sauce but these sauces we need to add much later. By the way I would prefer cheddar than mozzarella, but anyway both of them were perfect for this panzerotti!

                Peppers!

                 Here you go the filling, cheddar was missing in this shot! 

                  My dough was divided into 19 portions, but it would be better if only 12-14. 

                  The mould was not a good choice but for the beginner like me, it was needed! 

Do add the sauces first, tomato and chilli (if you prefer spicy taste), don't forget to wet the edges, it's important as it helps them to stick to together later when shaping a cake! You see the mould in the photo, I needed it as I was not good at forming a good half-moon shape, especially with the edges, you can do it without mould.

               After the sauce, add mozzarella, sausage, pepper, cheddar...

                And here we go - the first panzerotti - ready to be frozen for tomorrow party! 

               Our deep fried panzerotti! Maybe the look not that pretty but the taste was delicious! 

                   My friend's daughter quickly ate two pieces...she loved it. 
I carried these frozen panzerotti from 7:00 am until almost noon as we were travelling far from Saigon, it was totally unfrozen when we reached our friend's house. Everyone was hungry so we rushed to fry these "bánh quai vạc" in Italian style! It was burned a bit due to not many oil, and unexperienced cook, but all cakes were gone very quickly, the taste was awesome!
Actually the night before at home, I did try to bake some, but frankly speaking the fried ones - much tastier!

                      Baked version, actually it was not that bad, quite crispy from he outside! 

                     This was my second batch of panzerotti, different filling! 


It's a really good stuff for the party, especially for those who love pizza, it's similar to pizza taste, that's why they still name panzerotti "closed pizza" or "deep-fried pizza". So if you have a chance, please do it, it's interesting to taste a new style "bánh quai vạt"! Good luck! 

Happy New Year and all best wishes to everyone who spent time to check my blog over the past years!