Little Bombs Land In 9th Square — For Breakfast

“Bomboloni” are so called because they’re shaped like little bombs (from which century’s war this reporter could not ascertain).

Yet they taste heavenly, light, and very un-warlike.

These Italian breakfast staples — poorly described as ​“donuts” and based on Umbrian regional and family recipes — have been drawing a loyal following to Skappo Merkato at Orange at Crown.

There, the brothers Marc and Michael Sincavage, along with sister Yvette and mom Anna, have been serving 12 different varieties of bomboloni every Friday morning for the past year.

Skappo Merkato is connected to the original family-style Skappo Wine Bar around the corner on Crown.

Marc Sincavage, the chief bomboloni creator, said he has spent 18 months honing the approach to the bomboloni, whose prep requires a process that takes about 35 hours.

It begins Wednesday night when, with the help of his wife Minola, Marc prepares the yeasted dough to begin the fermentation process. That takes as much as 24 hours: The longer the dough is allowed to ferment, the more the gases in it diffuse and augment flavor.

The final ​“proofing” or the last rise of the dough before baking takes place Thursday night. Then Sincavage shapes the bombolini.

On Friday morning, after having risen before sunlight, he quickly fries the bombolini in canola oil. That is followed by the infusion of crema and other fillings, and glazes.

The idea to introduce bombolini to Skappo occurred to Marc Sincavage during a family trip to Naples, While he doesn’t disclose trade secrets about the recipe, he said, much has to do with ingredients, of course, but also with climate, timing, and temperature.

This past Friday morning, the wet weather had an effect on the rise of the dough, Sincavage said.

While he stays true to local Umbrian traditions, he said, his ​“secret” ingredients also include adding to the traditional Italian approach — which usually limits the filings to nutella and cream — by offering tiramisu and limoncello, among others. Although Italians wouldn’t likely use them for this purpose, he said, they are Italian items, so it’s culinary tradition with a local Italian diaspora twist.

Customers steadily came in for their weekly fix, including architects from the offices in the area around the Nine Squares, Marc Sincavage expressed pleasure for what the bomboloni were doing: bringing people together.

That was why his mother had started the wine bar with its family-style tables, he said. Now the bomboloni were becoming the draw for folks to come in during the morning and linger.