Cannoli tubes: the most specific tool in Italian pastry. Worth every centimetre.
Without the metal tubes, there are no cannoli. This sounds obvious. It is obvious. And yet people attempt cannoli without them every year, wrap dough around wooden dowels or foil, and produce something that is technically a fried cylinder but is not a cannolo. Buy the tubes.
The cannelle per cannoli are small metal tubes — stainless steel cylinders, 12–15cm long, 2cm in diameter — around which the cannoli dough is wrapped before frying. The tube holds the dough in its characteristic cylindrical shape during frying, creating the rigid shell that will later be filled. Without the tube, the dough spreads, bubbles unevenly, and produces a fried disc that is not a cannolo and cannot pretend to be one.
They cost approximately one euro each. You need at least twelve to make cannoli in any sensible quantity. People attempt cannoli without them every year, using improvised alternatives: wooden dowels that burn, aluminium foil that shifts, toilet paper tubes that absolutely should not be used in food preparation. All of these alternatives produce inferior results. Buy the tubes.
Caring for the tubes
Wash them immediately after use — if the oil sets on them they become sticky and the next batch of dough will adhere to the metal rather than releasing cleanly. Dry them completely before storage. Do not put them in the dishwasher. This is the entire maintenance protocol for a tool that will outlast you.
“Someone asked me once if they could make cannoli without the tubes. I told them they could try. They came back two hours later with something that looked like a fried saddle. Buy the tubes.”— CORRADO ASSENZA, CAFFÈ SICILIA, NOTO
Sizing
Standard cannoli tubes are 12–13cm long and 2cm in diameter. Larger tubes exist for bigger cannoli — the festive kind, served at Sicilian weddings, that are absurdly large and require two hands. Unless you are planning a Sicilian wedding, the standard size is sufficient. Mini cannoli tubes (1cm diameter) are used for the small versions served as petits fours. These are adorable and take three times as long per cannolo. Worth it occasionally.
