Beautiful, Authentic and Easy Italian Recipe: Three-Ingredient Sofficini

If you are looking for simple yet impressive authentic Italian recipes, sofficini are a perfect choice (as long as you are not looking for "healthy", and are not on a diet, I should add). It is one of the lesser known dishes out there, but is an absolute crowd pleaser. This dish looks just as good at a Thanksgiving table, as it does at a potluck dinner. There are simply no downfalls to it, so let's get started.

• One 12 oz bag of shredded mozzarella
• One roll of frozen dough (you should use flour to dust the surface, once you start working with the dough)
• Olive Oil for frying

Consider other fillings for this recipe.

• Fry chopped mushrooms and onions, and use it as a filling instead.
• Spread tomato sauce seasoned with basil on the inside of the dough square, before adding mozzarella, peas and chopped ham.
• Thinly cut up a peeled apple and fry it for a few minutes with sugar, until soft. If you use it as filling, you will end up with a delicious dessert.
• Stick a cup of chopped up strawberries covered in sugar into a microwave, drain the juices, and get a strawberry variation!

You can't mess this up. If you are using prepared, frozen dough, you will need to pull it out of the freezer and leave it in the fridge to allow it to thaw about 24 hours before you are planning to make the sofficini. Once you are ready, simply flour the counter surface, stretch the dough out by hand, and roll it to about 1/8 of an inch thick. If the dough begins to stick to the rolling pin, simply brush some flour on the pin.

Then cut the dough into 3-4 inch squares, and don't worry if the squares do not come out perfect. To prove the point, in the image to the right, you can see two distinctly different sizes, but I assure you, the result tasted just the same.

Cup each square in your hand, add cheese, and seal the edges. Try to stuff as much cheese as the square can hold, but make sure the edges are sealed tight, or your sofficini will fall apart during step 3 of this process.

Once your sofficini are filled and sealed, you are ready to fry them. Be sure to prepare a dish that will hold finished sofficini before you begin.

Preheat 1-2 inches of olive oil in a pan (do not skip the preheating part!), and toss the sofficini in. Try to make sure they don't touch. Give each one about 30 seconds on each side, until golden brown. They will sizzle and expand right before your eyes. This process goes by very quickly, so make sure once you start, you have the time to finish, or your meal will be burnt.

Enjoy with friends!

If you enjoy Italian cousin and would like to try something different, other than lasagna, try making arancini - stuffed rice balls.

If you are have no fear of vegetables and are interested in international cooking in general, consider making gorgeous Ukrainian soup - borsch.