Rocciata di Assisi · Rocciata Assisana
Umbria · dolce · serves 10 · 150 min total · medium
Assisi and Foligno's harvest dolce — first cousin to Trentino's strudel and Sicily's nucatoli, possibly carried south by medieval pilgrims on the Via Francigena. Made from October's apples, autumn's nuts and the last summer figs dried in the sun. Franciscan friars are said to have baked it for charity at the Porziuncola. The dough must be rolled until you can read a missal through it.
Ingredients
- 300 g 00 flour
- 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 120 ml dry white wine, warm
- 40 g sugar
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 500 g firm apples, peeled, diced
- 150 g walnuts, chopped
- 80 g almonds, chopped
- 50 g pine nuts
- 100 g sultanas, soaked
- 80 g dried figs, chopped
- 80 g dried prunes, chopped
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 80 g sugar for filling
- 3 tbsp olive oil for brushing
Method
- Dough: pile flour with sugar and salt. Add warm wine and olive oil. Knead 10 minutes until silky and elastic. Wrap, rest 1 hour. The dough must be stretched paper-thin, so the resting is essential.
- Filling: combine the diced apples, walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, drained sultanas, chopped figs and prunes, cinnamon, cocoa, lemon zest and the filling sugar. Mix well.
- Cover a clean cloth with flour. Roll the dough out, then lift and stretch with the backs of your hands until it is almost transparent — a rectangle 80 × 50 cm. Trim the thick edges.
- Spread the filling evenly across the dough, leaving a 3 cm margin on the long sides.
- Using the cloth, lift one long side and roll the dough away from you into a tight log. Tuck the ends under.
- Curl the log into a spiral on a lined baking tray — like a snail's shell. The name rocciata means little rock — the spiral should be tight and look like a small boulder.
- Brush generously with olive oil. Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 40–45 minutes until burnished dark brown.
- Cool on a rack. Dust with icing sugar. Slice across the spiral so each portion shows the rings of filling.