Francesco Mazzei's M'Pigliatia
Francesco Mazzei's M'Pigliatia
“The Pitta M'Pigliata is a traditional Christmas dessert from the remote Sila Mountains in Calabria: baked pastry rosettes with walnuts, almonds, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and drizzled with honey. Francesco grew up baking these cakes with his grandmother and mother two weeks prior to Christmas. His grandmother always glazed them with musto cotto and took them as little gifts when visiting friends and family and enjoyed with some sweet wine, Sambuca or Grappa.”
Servings
35
Ingredients
- 500 gram strong white flour
- 20 gram sugar
- 2 eggs
- 50 gram unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 2 gram salt
- 90 gram marsala
- 200 gram dry figs
- 4 golden apples
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
- 30 gram pine nuts (toasted)
- 30 gram pistachios (toasted)
- 200 gram dry apricots
- 100 gram sultanas
- 50 gram hazelnuts (toasted)
- 30 gram walnuts (toasted)
- 200 gram mosto cotto
- 200 gram honey
Directions
- Mix all the pastry ingredients together to form a dough and leave to rest for about one hour.
- Peel and cut the apples into small cubes. In a pre-heated pan, melt the butter before adding the apples and vanilla sugar and leave to cook until golden brown.
- In a mortar, crush the dried fruits and nuts into a paste. Mix the paste with the apples and leave to cool down.
- Roll out the pastry thinly and cut into long rectangle strips horizontally. Spoon the filling onto the rectangle, leaving a little room at the edges, and roll it lengthwise like a jelly roll. Preheat the oven to 170 °C and bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool down and then brush the top with some honey, followed by mosto cotto.