Strucchi — Friulian Fried Pastry Rolls

Carnia mountain area, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The strucchi are documented as a Christmas pastry from at least the 17th century in the Carnia valley records. The honey-walnut-fig filling reflects the mountain economy of the Carnia — preserved fats (lard), honey from mountain hives, dried fruits, and orchard nuts.

Strucchi (also called strucolo in some areas) are the traditional fried sweet pastry of Friuli's Carnia mountain area: a thin pastry dough rolled around a filling of walnuts, raisins, dried figs, honey, and spices (cinnamon, cloves), then sealed and fried in lard until golden. They are a variant of the strudel tradition that dominates the Trentino and Alto Adige, but the Friulian version is fried rather than baked, and the filling is denser and more Mediterranean in flavour from the honey and dried figs. They are a winter pastry, made for Christmas and Carnival, and their flavour — honey, walnut, cinnamon, fried dough — is the flavour of the Carnia mountain winter.

Hot from the oil, strucchi are crisp and yielding — the fried pastry shatters slightly at the first bite, releasing the dense, sweet-spiced walnut and fig filling perfumed with cinnamon. The honey binds everything. Under the icing sugar, they are small and complete — each one containing the flavour of a mountain Christmas.