zeppole /ZEP-oh-lay/. noun. May refer to two different Italian pastries. The first is a deep-fried dough ball usually topped with powdered sugar and filled with custard, cream or honey-butter. The second is a baked cream puff made from choux pastry (or pâte à choux). The latter may be sweet—filled with ricotta and chocolate, candied fruits or honey—or savory, filled with anchovy. See also the US crispelli. Italian zeppole, plural of zeppola (fritter).
“There aren’t a lot of food venders. We wanted to differentiate this from other street fairs. Also, I didn’t want people dropping zeppoli all over our books.” (The New Yorker)
“The mingled smells of salsiccia, bracciola, zeppole and calzone wafted from the stalls of food vendors around Father Zemo Square.” (The Monitor)
“Giving food to the needy is a St. Joseph’s Day custom. In some communities it is traditional to wear red clothing and eat a Neopolitan pastry known as a Zeppole (created in 1840 by Don Pasquale Pinatauro in Napoli) on St. Joseph’s Day.” (World Heritage Encyclopedia)
“For the common people of Naples, Christmas is a festival of eels, Easter a revel of casatelli; they eat zeppole to honor Saint Joseph; and the greatest proof of affliction that can be given to the dying Saviour is not to eat meat.” (Marc Monnier)
“Vinny preferred eating to talking. And the only white powder he liked was the sugar on his zeppoles.” (F. Paul Wilson)
“Fried zeppole with anchovies, baked stuffed prawns, fillet of sea bass with herbs, stuffed clams, swordfish rolls, linguine with blue crab sauce…” (Molly O’Neill)
“There were roulette wheels, zeppole and sausage stands, and a big glass cotton-candy machine in which sugar was spun into billows of flyaway, pale blue hair.” (Meg Wolitzer)
“Zeppole man across the street began to sing. Angel and Geronimo started to sing. The band across the street acquired an Italian tenor from the neighborhood…” (Thomas Pynchon)
“Each zeppole—essentially the Italian version of a doughnut hole—is impossibly tender within but crunches satisfyingly between your teeth with every bite.” (Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs)