Holy Cannoli: Who Let the Information Literacy Librarians Out Again?

It started off innocently enough. "How are the cannoli?" I asked N and J at a campus function tonight. As it turns out, the cannoli were pretty tasty but my simple question began a conversation about what exactly cannoli are. Are they that dessert thing filled with lemon or marscapone or ricotta? Or are they a pasta (pronounced, for the record, either pass-ta or pah-sta) filled with cheese or spinach. Or are they both? And, why, in the Godfather did Pete Clemenza say "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli"? Although I said "huh." outloud what I really meant was "I must google cannoli." And so, here I sit, having googled cannoli and finding myself longing to share my new found knowledge with someone. Here's what I learned.

• Cannoli (or the singular cannolo) means “little tube”
• The pasta we were thinking of is cannelloni which means "big pipes." Cannelloni are often called manicotti. However, as Wikipedia notes, "an article in Better Homes and Gardens magazine distinguishes them, using manicotti for noodles rolled diagonally and cannelloni for noodles rolled rectilinearly."
• They originated in Sicily and are associated with the Carnevale
• An anonymous 17th century poet wrote, "Beautiful are the Cannoli of Carnevale,/ No tastier morsel in the world:/Blessed is the money used to buy them"
• Recipes for cannoli are here or you can mail order them from here. You can order the necessary canoli making forms here
• If you live in my fair city, the Italia Bakery makes beauteous little cannoli. They're like little works of art.

I'm still not sure why Pete Clemenza said, "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." But, given the choice, I'd leave the gun and take the cannoli every time, especially the lemon-filled ones. Capisce?