Sgabeo

Sgabeo

Type	Doughnut
Place of origin	Italy
Region or state	Lunigiana
Main ingredients	Leavened bread dough
Media: Sgabeo

Sgabeo is an Italian food from Lunigiana, an Italian historical region now divided between Liguria and Tuscany. It is a leavened bread dough, cut into strips, fried and salted on the surface, which is traditionally eaten plain or stuffed with cheeses or salumi. Lately, however, it is not uncommon that sgabeo is also proposed as a sweet, filled with pastry cream or chocolate.

Origins

The recipe for sgabei originates in the Val di Magra, in the far east of Liguria, where women used to fry the dough left over from the production of bread in lard to create a sort of fried bread to accompany salumi and cheeses. The bread dough was enriched with yellow flour, which made it crunchier and drier. Sgabei were prepared for the men who went to work in the fields and ate them at lunchtime.

Today, they are offered above all on the occasion of village festivals or as an appetizer or second course in restaurants and kitchens in province of La Spezia and Lunigiana. The current shape is in strips of leavened dough with a width of about 3–4 cm and a length varying from 15 to 30 cm. Frying takes place in olive oil until sgabeo becomes warm and golden.

See also

• List of doughnut varieties
• List of fried dough foods