CHRISTMAS RING

(Buccellato)

Makes one 40 cm/16 inch ring

PASTRY

425 g/15 oz flour

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

125 g/4 oz lard

50 g/2 oz unsalted butter

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon grated orange rind

125 ml/4 fl oz white wine or less

FILLING

1 batch cuddureddi filling (see preceding recipe)

1 egg white, lightly beaten

75 g/3 oz chopped pistachios

Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt, and cut in the lard and butter to a coarse-meal texture. Work in the egg, egg yolk, and orange rind, and add just enough wine to hold the dough together. Your dough should be soft but not sticky. Knead for a minute or two, shape into a ball, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Prepare the filling as directed.

Roll out the dough to about 3 mm/⅛ inch thickness, and with the help of a large plate or round dish, cut a circle about 40 cm/16 inches in diameter. Using a demitasse saucer or other small dish, cut out a 10 cm/4 inch circle from the centre of the large circle, so that you are left with a flat ring of dough that is about 15 cm/6 inches wide. Roll it up on your rolling pin and spread it out on a greased baking tray.

Spoon the filling onto the ring (leaving a few spoonfuls to make cuddureddi with the scraps of leftover pastry). Make a series of perpendicular cuts around the inside margin of the pastry ring and a few more (more widely spaced) on the outer edge, and fold the inner and outer edges up over the filling, overlapping them at the top and pinching them together with as much elegance as you can muster. With a fork poke a pattern of holes in the pastry so that the dark filling shows through.

Brush the top of the pastry ring with the beaten egg white, and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios. Bake in a preheated 180C/350F/gas mark 4 oven for about 30 minutes or until delicately browned.

Sicilians who live in the Hyblaean Mountains make Christmas biscuits that are filled with honey and nuts. In Vizzini, I am told, these too are known as cuddureddi; in Modica they are called nucatoli.