Christmas Dinner, dessert: Struffoli

December has arrived, and the magic of Christmas is already in the air—a perfect time to share special moments with family, especially around the table.
To make the atmosphere even warmer and more inviting, we’re bringing you four recipes to create a delicious Christmas menu. It’s a journey across Italy, adding extra flavor to your holiday meal with regional specialties recommended by our Cesarine.

In the past few days, we shared the recipe for a tasty appetizer, the potato pie; a rich and flavorful first course, Agnolotti alla Cavour; and a mouthwatering second course, roast veal. Today, we complete our Christmas menu with a traditional dessert from Campania, one that can’t be missing from Neapolitan holiday tables: struffoli.

This recipe is presented by our Cesarina Patrizia from Sant'Agata de' Goti, in the province of Benevento. Her version differs slightly from the classic one thanks to a “secret ingredient” that gives the dough a lovely aroma: a splash of Strega liqueur.

“This struffoli recipe comes from my mother, who prepared them with special care every year. Over time, I made it my own, adding small improvements and adapting it to my cooking style, without losing the spirit of the original recipe. For me, making them means reliving moments of warmth, celebration, and tradition: a simple dessert with great emotional value”.

Neapolitan struffoli

Struffoli are traditional Christmas sweets from Campania: small fried dough balls coated with plenty of honey glaze and colorful sprinkles. They’re easy to make, much harder is tracing their origins. One thing is certain: they go way back. They were likely known in Magna Graecia, of which Naples was part, and their name may reveal their Greek roots: “struffolo” may come from “strongoulos”, meaning “round.” Others believe they originated in the Iberian Peninsula, where a very similar dessert called piñonate is found; their arrival in Campania may be linked to Spanish rule in Naples from 1504 to 1713.
According to other theories, the name may come from “strofinare”, referring to the motion used to roll the dough into long ropes before cutting it; or from “strutto”, the lard originally used to make and fry them.

The first written references date back to the 1600s, when two well-known culinary texts mention “strufoli alla romana”, prepared in almost the same way as Neapolitan struffoli.