Pitta 'Mpigliata Calabrese di Natale

Cosenza and Sila, Calabria

One of the most extraordinary Christmas pastries in Italy: a coiled, rose-shaped pastry from the Sila and Cosenza areas of Calabria, filled with chopped figs, raisins, honey, walnuts, pine nuts, cinnamon, cloves, and candied citron. The pastry dough is enriched with lard, white wine, and olive oil. The filling is mounded in the centre of a pastry square, the corners folded in and sealed, then the whole is coiled into a rose shape before baking. The name means 'enwrapped' — the filling is imprisoned in the pastry.

• Calabria's neighbour shares the tradition of filling a short pastry with dried fruit, spice, and honey → Mpanatigghi di Modica (filled pastry rolls) Sicilian
• The direct ancestor of Mediterranean honey-nut stuffed pastries that arrived via Arab Sicily and spread northward → Baklava / Ma'amoul (stuffed pastry) Arabic
• Christmas honey-nut pastries of the Greek tradition sharing the same Arabic origin → Melomakarona / Kourabiedes Greek

Short pastry with a honeyed fig-and-nut filling perfumed with cinnamon and cloves — coiled into a rose and glazed with honey, it is the Calabrian Christmas in edible form