• Time

    1 hour

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Course

    Desserts and Fruit

  • Italian Region

    Sicily

Ingredients

For pasta

  • 2 lb all-purpose flour
  • ½ lb lard
  • 7 oz sugar

For filling

  • 1 lb dried figs
  • ½ lb almonds, peeled
  • ½ lb raisins
  • cocoa powder, bitter
  • honey
  • cinnamon
  • 2 egg yolks

Preparation

40 minutes preparation + 20 minutes cooking

With the flour, clarified pork fat, zucchini and a little water, prepare a fairly soft compact dough and leave to rest. Separately, finely chop the almonds, dried figs and raisins, amalgamating them with a little honey and a little ground cinnamon.

Add some spoonfuls of bitter cocoa powder and put the misture to cook in a pot, over very low heat, stirring continuously to obtain a homogenous mixture. Leave the mixture prepared thus to cool, and then use it to make some rolls about 1.6 inches in diameter. Flatten the dough, reducing it to rectangular strips about 2.4 inches wide and some 0.1 inch thick. Place on top the rolls of filling, tucking in to enclose the mixture.

Cut about 8 inches long and join the ends to make some rings. Make some incisions in these with the tip of a knife to allow the steam to escape during cooking. Brush with beaten egg and place in a greased oven pan, in a moderate oven, for about 20 minutes until nicely golden.

They can be served either hot or cold.

Food history

The origins of the almond are to be found in Asia Minor: something testified by the wealth of recipes based on this most fragrant of nuts.

In antiquity, its use as a foodstuff soon spread all over the Mediterranean basin: in Italy almonds provide real gastronomic pearls, as “confetti” (sugared almonds), and in biscuits, pastries, and marzipan.

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