Niki writes: "I am looking for a recipe you may be able to locate. I am a third generation Italian, my great grandmother used to make a dessert during the Holidays that my family loved and cannot seem to find anyone who knows what we are talking about. My grandmother died suddenly and never had the chance to teach anyone the recipe...."
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 pounds (1 k, about 8 1/3 cups) unbleached all purpose flour (Italian grade 00, if you can find it)
- 4/5 cup (200 ml) dry white wine
- 2/5 cup (100 ml) olive oil
- More olive oil for frying
- 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) cotto di fichi
- Powdered cinnamon and powdered cloves
Preparation:
Continuing Niki's note, she says, "It is a dessert, a cookie in some aspects but not really. It is not a cake. It is a bow tie (lightly fried dough in the shape of taralli) but was covered in fig sauce. All my mother remembers was that it took a long time for my grandmother to make the fig sauce and that it smelled the house up really bad. I remember eating them as a child and loving them.I do not speak Italian and neither does my mother so when we say their name as we interpret it no one knows what we are talking about. I am going to give you the name the way I would pronounce it, maybe you could decipher it. The name is In gaten dats. Our family has roots in Calabria, Napoli and Bari. We are not sure what area this recipe comes from.
Luigi Sada discusses the cooking down of figs at length in La Cucina Pugliese, and since the procedure is lengthy and would smell up a house, the recipe may be Pugliese. To begin with cotto di fichi:
There are many recipes for producing this concentrate, which varies from town to town. This procedure gives excellent results.
In the second half of the month of August select the ripest figs, put them in a pot, and when it's full set it over a burner, and cook until their volume is reduced by half. Pour the mixture out into a finely woven muslin bag, tie the bag shut, and hang it from a nail or a tree branch for 24 hours, catching the drippings in a large bowl.
Next, press the figs to extract more juice; in the past they used a press made from two boards connected by a hinge, or by turning the figs out into a basket, covering them with a circular board, and setting a weight over the board.
When you have extracted all the juice you can, set it in a pot over a low flame and cook it for another 3-4 hours, by which time its volume will be further reduced and it will have thickened. At this point let it cool and transfer it to sterile glass jars; it will keep for months without deteriorating at all.
What to use this fig concentrate for? Mr. Sada suggests Cartellate, which are also known as crustoli, frìnzele, ncartiddati (which word somewhat resembles Nikki's in gaten dats) and scartagghiate:
These are, he says, the foremost Puglian, or, to be more precise, Barese Christmas treat, the symbol of happiness, celebration, and fun. "We don't know their etymology or origin," he continues, "though linguists and historians have made some suggestions. They're first mentioned in the Ospizio dei Pellegrini di San Nicola di Bari's registry of provisions, meals and Sunday expenses from 1762, as coming from the Bebedictine nuns of the Convent of Santa Scolastica, while the nuns mention them in a book that's a little more recent."
You'll need the ingredients listed above. Combine the flour with the wine and the olive oil; if the dough is too firm, add a little warm water, and continue working the dough until it is smooth, soft, and elastic. Next, pinch off bits of dough and form them into little loaves, which you will want to roll out quite thin. Cut them into roughly 2-inch (4 cm) strips with a serrated pastry wheel; you should obtain strips that are about 11 inches (30 cm) long. Fold the strips in half lengthwise and press them together a bout a half an inch up from one edge, to obtain troughs (for want of a better term) that you should twist lengthwise, attaching the ends together to form wreathes that are 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) in diameter). Dry the wreathes for 10-12 hours, then fry them 4-5 at a time in hot oil, frying them only until they color.
Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and set them temporarily on a plate. Heat the cotto di fichi, being carful lest it boil and dip the cartellate into it 4-5 at a time, removing them after a few minutes and putting them on broad, low platters. If you want, you can dust them with finely minced cloves and powdered cinnamon.
