Taralli are an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 snack food

Snack food

A snack is a portion of food oftentimes smaller than that of a regular meal, that is generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged and processed foods and items made from fresh ingredients at home....

, common all over the southern half of the Italian Peninsula

Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...

. A cracker similar in texture to a breadstick

Breadstick

Breadsticks are generally pencil-sized sticks of crisp, dry bread originating in Turin and the surrounding area in Italy. They are originally thought to have been created in the 14th century; according to a local tradition, they would be instead invented by a baker in Lanzo Torinese in 1679...

 or a pretzel

Pretzel

A pretzel is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe...

, taralli can be sweet or savory. Sweet taralli are sometimes glazed

Glaze (cooking technique)

A glaze in cooking is a coating of a glossy, often sweet, sometimes savoury, substance applied to food typically by dipping, dripping, or with a brush. Egg whites and basic icings are both used as glazes...

 with sugar. Savory taralli may be flavored with onion, garlic, sesame seeds, poppy seed

Poppy seed

Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy . The tiny kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years...

s, fennel, pepper, chili or just salt. Sweet and plain taralli are often dunked in wine.

Taralli are classically formed into rings or ovals, about four to five inches in circumference. Smaller taralli, called tarallini, with a circumference of 1.5 to 3 inches, are sold commercially. Similar to bagel

Bagel

A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...

s, they are briefly boiled before being baked, which gives them a very interesting texture. Baked taralli can be kept in an airtight container for several months.

A variation can be made by deep-frying a sweet version of the rings and serving them with a sweet dessert wine. Fried taralli do not keep well and should be eaten quickly.

Ingredients for one commercially sold tarallini brand: wheat flour, yeast, water, olive oil, fennel seed, black pepper, salt, anise flavor.