Today on Food on Fridays we’re back to basics with an oft-recurring theme: doughnuts.

However today’s variation is that we look at a version of a kind of fried dough that you find in Italy. Called ciambella, it’s a circle of fried dough with a hole in the middle. We’ve sampled huge versions of things that look like this at Italian food festivals, that can be the width of personal pan-pizza. But a few weeks ago at the Venice airport, we found this one, which was unusually the size of standard North American doughnut. We had to try it, purely for research purposes, of course:

Ciambella at the Venice Airport

Many thanks to the Friendly Tourist for standing in line to get it, and then being willing to hold it for the photo. That napkin underneath was necessary, as it was a bit greasy. But it actually didn’t taste too bad, particularly considering it was airport food. 😉

Anyway, see it was a fun reminder of eating ciambelle on occasion when we lived in Bolzano.  As a Food on Friday bonus, here’s a link to 3 of my posts from Two to BZ celebrating ciambelle. There’s even one with an Italian doughnut proverb. You see, doughnuts are food for the mind as well as the sweet-tooth.

No wonder they keep popping up on Food on Fridays. 😉