Christmas anticipations: the Calabrian pitta "mpigliata" or pitta 'nchiusa", a typical dessert of San Giovanni in Fiore but very common throughout the province of Cosenza.
Ingredients for the outer dough:
250 g of flour, 60 g of sugar, 60 ml of extra virgin olive oil, 60 ml of sweet wine or Vermouth, 2 scoops of orange juice, 2 pinches of ground cloves, 2 pinches of ground cinnamon, 1 spoon of liqueur anise, 1 tablespoon of mandarin liqueur, a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of honey.
Ingredients for the filling: 175 g of walnuts, 175 g of raisins, 25 g of pine nuts, 100 g of almonds, 2 pinches of ground cloves, 2 pinches of ground cinnamon, 1 spoonful of anise liqueur, 1 spoonful of mandarin, 5 spoons of orange juice,2 spoons of honey.
Procedure: the day before, assemble all the ingredients (after having chopped walnuts, almonds and pine nuts) for the filling in a bowl (the raisins are soaked for 1 hour in cold water and dried) and leave to rest overnight.
The next day mix the flour and sugar with the various liquids after having slightly heated them. Leave the dough to rest for an hour. Then from this obtain a thin sheet larger than the circular pan and cover the pan. Brush with a little honey.
With the rest of the pasta, make strips 10 cm wide and twice as long, fill half of the strips with the filling lengthwise, then double in size and roll up into a rose shape.
Arrange the roses in the pan as in the photo and bring the rolled edges of the base close to the roses so that they support each other. Bake at 150/170 degrees for an hour. During cooking, sprinkle the dessert with hot honey so that it becomes a nice amber color.
