Unless you live in certain parts of the US or traveled to Italy, you may or may not be familiar with a classic Italian dessert — the cannoli. It is a tubular textural dessert experience of your dreams — the crispy, crunchy shell houses a creamy smooth filling inside — seriously, if you haven’t already, you need to try one. But it seems a little unfair that desserts get all of the fun, and have exciting shapes. That is until now — take a potato, use it for both the shell and the filling, and you have a savory cannoli that outshines any side dish you’ve ever have on the table.
Really potatoes need no description or rationalizing, they are amazing, and anything you make with them is a gastronomical delight. Despite potatoes being magical carbs, they often get ignored, and more often than not, they get sequestered as a simple holiday food smashed and dumped into a bowl. But that neglect stops here because these potato cannolis change the game for good.
First, you start by making the filling, aka the mashed potato portion. After peeling and boiling the potatoes until fork tender, mash the potatoes without other ingredients. Mashing the potatoes alone is crucial for a smooth filling, as the other mix-ins hinder you from breaking down the potatoes further. If you’re like me and don’t have a ricer, you can get a smooth filling by pressing the potato mixture through a mesh strainer.
In a pan is where the humble mashed potato becomes a creamy, cheesy mashed potato — as in all of the great guilty ingredients being added to the potato. You start with cream, a bit of butter, and some cheese. Here in the video they used slices of cheddar-flavored American slices, but you can use another cheese, just make sure to use actual slices and not pre-shredded cheese as this pre-done cheese has a coating of starch on the outside. Of course, salt and pepper the mashed potatoes, and cook them on low heat until everything is combined. You then pour the mixture into a piping bag, ideally fitted with a tip. These are fancy mashed potatoes after all, but seriously they’re not too difficult.
Next, tackle the shell. In the video, they used a mandolin to get thin slices of the peeled potato, but you can use a sharp knife, just be super careful about it. The slices need to be uniform and thin, or else they won’t cook evenly.
Now for the hard, not-so-hard part. You can use cannoli tubes or even free-formed crumpled pieces of greased aluminum foil, but regardless of what you use you have to thoroughly grease the tubs, or the potato shells will never come off! The video used pins, but make sure you don’t use sewing pins with a colorful end part, which isn’t oven-safe.
Lay the shells seam-side down and bake at 395 degrees F for 35 minutes, you’ll want them to cool for a few minutes before trying to remove them, they’ll be incredibly hot, and they’ll burn your hands. Once the tubes can be touched with your hands, pipe the cheesy potato filling into each shell. Seriously the steps of the shell making are worth it, and you can make these potato cannolis not just for a dinner but also as a party appetizer as well.
You can watch the whole video from start to finish below!