December is the month for desserts in Calabria. Every year the season starts on December 13 with the festa di Santa Lucia. This is the day that many cooks start the fritture, the annual frying of yeasted dough for desserts. In some towns people prepare la cuccia, which is cooked wheat berries with nuts, mosto cotto and spices. In the area of Calabria in which I grew up, Christmas meant grispelle, yeasted dough-and-potato fritters, shaped long and drizzled with honey, and cuddureddi, which are ring-shaped and served plain or with honey. Up in the Sila area, especially in the town of San Giovanni in Fiore, you find the traditional pitta ‘mpigliata, baked pastry rosettes filled with walnuts, almonds, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and drizzled with honey. 
Another Christmas dessert found in the Cosenza area are the scaliddi or scalille, meaning “little ladders”. These are fritters made with a sweet dough, but shaped either to resemble a ladder, with two long parallel sides and shorter cross bars, or a long spiral made by wrapping a rope of dough around the handle of a wooden spoon and then dipping the spoon into hot oil.
My two favorite desserts at Christmas were always the cannariculi (or cicirata) and chinule. The cannariculi are a sweet fried dough shaped like gnocchi, fried and drizzled with honey:
The cicirata is the same dough but cut in the size of a chick pea and fried and coated with honey. Those of you who are Neapolitan know them as struffoli. In some towns the cannariculi are coated with mosto cotto. They are also known as turdilli or crustoli. The chinule are shaped like a ravioli or half-moon turnover and filled with a puree of chestnuts, raisins, chocolate, cocoa powder and spices and then are fried and drizzled with honey.
As you go further south in the boot you will find many other types of traditional desserts at Christmas time, like petrali, half-moon shaped cookie dough filled with dried figs, nuts, chocolate, mosto cotto and cinnamon, and then baked and covered with a glaze. And there’s the pignolata, tiny fritters covered with either a chocolate or lemon glaze.
I know that you are all waiting for the recipes for these desserts but unfortunately I can’t include them this year–all the ones that I mentioned are in my upcoming cookbook, and I am not allowed to give them out. But I promise you that I will give them to you next Christmas!
All the photos in this post were taken by Sara Remington for my book. I will add more pictures to the blog as I begin my own fritture.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
These look wonderful! I cannot wait to see your cookbook!!
Thanks for sharing these. My family made most of them at Christmas time. We make the pitta ‘mpigliata but have always called it Christmas pizza.
I look forward to seeing your book!
ACK! Torture! Can’t wait for the book! I miss my Nana’s turdilli so much! It was my favorite!
I just discovered your web site. Benissimo.
Sono nato qui in America (San Jose, CA), ma i miei genitori sono stati di Calabria — una piccola paese — Donnici Superiore.
I miss my nonna’s turdilli & scalille., what a surprise to find them on your site.
Unfortunately there are few left in my family who make or know about these treats.
We continue the tradition, however, of making the cuddureddi every Christmas.
I will visit your site often to see what other discoveries I can make.
Ottime Feste Natalizie e Buon Anno Nuovo!
Daniel,
I am glad you found my blog. I am hoping that you will be able to recreate some of your nonna’s dishes when my cookbook comes out next year.
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Love our blog, reminds me of family dinners… Can’t wait for your cookbook! Can you add me to a notification list?
Claudia,
I will definitely let you know when my book is published. It is scheduled for Fall 2010.
What a treat to see the traditional cookies/small cakes my mother made each year!
She was the only one in our Sicilian family who made the cannariculi and the chinule
so now I know these cookies were a Calabrian tradition. My mother used white port wine in the cannariculi dough and covered the small cakes with Karo, probably a necessity during the war when honey was a luxury.
Put me on your email list for the release of your new book.
Thank you,
Mary
Mary,
I will let you know when it is released.
Hi ! Please put me on your list – to send me a notice when your book is released…!
Thanks – I love to cook.
my mother, may god bless her always, made a donut shaped cookies baked them and than covered them with an harden egg white frosting, they were called I think the spelling or souds like “chumbrella” I would love to make them for my children but just don’t have a recipe, my sister does not know how to make them either.
Please help
Thanks
please put me opn the list for your cook book
Thanks
Rosetta, I stumbled upon your site looking for the traditional Christmas sweet my Calabrian family calls ‘a pitta’ and I see the real name is pitta ‘mpigliata. Does your new book have a recipe for it? We do have our family recipe, which requires it be made 2 months ahead of Christmas and tied with cotton string…is this typical?
Your photos have brought back a lot of wonderful memories…especially the stuffed baby eggplant.
Has the book been released yet?
Thank you,
Susan
Susan,
The book does have the recipe for Pitta ‘mipgliata. I am not aware of making it two months ahead of time but I know that they keep for a long time. The book is released on Nov.8th.
You can order it online or through your local bookstore.