Sfogliatella (: sfogliatelle) is a shell-shaped pastry with a sweet or creamy filling, originating in the Campania region of Italy. Sfogliatella means 'small, thin leaf/layer', as the pastry's texture resembles stacked leaves.

Origin

Sfogliatella Santa Rosa, from which the current sfogliatella was born, was created in the monastery of Santa Rosa in Conca dei Marini, Campania, in the 17th century. Pasquale Pintauro, a pastry chef from Naples, acquired the original recipe and began selling the pastries in his shop in 1818.

Regional variations

In Neapolitan cuisine, there are two types of the pastry: sfogliatella riccia ('curly'), the standard version, and sfogliatella frolla, a less labour-intensive pastry that uses a shortcrust dough and does not form the sfogliatella 's characteristic layers. A variation named coda d'aragosta (in the United States "lobstertail") also exists, with the same crust but a sweeter filling.