Recipe: Chocolate & Orange Ricotta Filled Cannoli

This stylish yet simple dessert is made in less than 15 minutes in total and tastes as good as it looks. Cannoli are Sicilian pastry desserts, and ready-made cannoli shells are a terrific time-saver. The ricotta filling can be made ahead of time and stored covered in the refrigerator. The cannoli just need assembling at serving time, which takes less than 5 minutes. Your guests will love these!

Ingredients (serves 4):
300g fresh ricotta (from delis)
75g finely chopped good-quality dark chocolate
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (eg Cointreau, Grand Marnier)
2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
8 ready-made cannoli shells (from delis and gourmet food stores)

To garnish: sifted icing sugar

Method:
1. Place the ricotta, chocolate, grated orange rind, orange liqueur and icing sugar in a bowl and combine thoroughly.
2. Spoon the ricotta mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle. If you don’t own a piping bag, use a clean plastic bag and using sharp scissors snip a 1cm hole in one corner.
3. Pipe the ricotta mixture into each cannoli shell through both ends.
4. Dust with sifted icing sugar and serve.

Enjoy!