Cigar Aficionado

When Clemenza told Rocco to “leave the gun, take the cannoli” in The Godfather movie back in 1972, it was perhaps the most sinister portrayal of the festive pastry in cinematic history. That is, until Don Altobello met his absurd fate via poisoned cannoli in 1990’s The Godfather Part III . Like the gangsters portrayed in the Godfather series, cannoli came to the U.S. from Sicily along with the migration of Italians at the turn of the century. And like most food history, the backstory is murky. The most common tale in cannoli lore is that it was created by the Saracens when Sicily was under Arabic rule. A variation has it that cannoli were made by the women of …