Sfogliatella is the Italian breakfast pastry made from layered sweet dough and shaped like a shell.
Sfogliatella is a filled pastry associated especially with Naples and the Campania region. Its distinctive shape resembles a clam or lobster tail, and its name is related to the Italian word for leaf because of its many thin layers.
The pastry is commonly filled with ricotta, semolina, sugar, cinnamon, candied citrus peel, and sometimes other flavorings. There are two major forms: sfogliatella riccia, made with crisp, flaky layers, and sfogliatella frolla, made with a smoother shortcrust-style exterior.
Sfogliatella is often eaten at breakfast with coffee, but it is also served as a snack or dessert. It should not be confused with cannoli, whose crisp tube is filled after frying, or bomboloni, which are Italian filled doughnuts. The shell-like layered structure is the defining feature of sfogliatella.