Merry Christmas!
On Christmas Day, I am left to conclude the column Christmas Around the World with a recipe from my region: Liguria.
As per North Italian tradition, we celebrate Christmas Day with lunch after opening gifts in the morning. On Christmas Eve, we attend Midnight Mass.
Typical dishes of the Ligurian Christmas lunch include: cappon magro, Chiavari roots, blood pudding, Genoese-style stuffed veal, borage ravioli “au tuccu” (with sauce), Ligurian rabbit, and, of course, Genoese panettone to finish. But in my teenage years, I fondly remember a typical sweet from the Imperia area, specifically from Isolabona.
This is the Cubaita. A sweet made from a solid dough of hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts cooked in honey, enclosed between two thin round wafers.
(You can also choose just one of the three; for example, I chose only hazelnuts – see photo- )
To prepare the wafers (wafers) called “néggie”, a special metal tool (a kind of clamp) called “i fari pe e nage” was used, on which the batter previously prepared with flour, water, and salt was cooked. In the past, the family’s initials were engraved on the discs to imprint them on the wafer surfaces.
Its origins are clearly Middle Eastern, but it is also prepared in Sicily.
Find other Christmas-dedicated recipes in the collection “Christmas Around the World“.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas
Cubaita Ingredients:
- 8 wafers
- 3.5 oz walnuts
- 3.5 oz hazelnuts
- 3.5 oz almonds
- 5.3 oz chestnut honey (or acacia)
- to taste orange zest
Preparation
Toast the nuts in the oven at 302°F for about 10 minutes, let them cool, and crush them with a mortar.
Meanwhile, heat the honey with finely chopped orange peel and the sugar, stirring continuously for about fifteen minutes; at this point, add the nuts and cook for another 5 minutes.
Spread the mixture on a marble slab and work it.
Use a spoon, preferably wooden, to pour the sweet mixture between the two wafers.
Place a light weight on top to flatten it.
This is the packaged version that comes directly from Isolabona:
Other names for cubaita:
In Pigna, Castelvittorio, and Triora, where it is present in very similar versions, different names are used: ubrìn is used in Pigna, marzàpai in Castelvittorio, while in Triora it’s called turùn.
To make wafers:
If you want to try creating the wafers, mix water, half a tablespoon of flour, and salt, and fill the special tool with this mixture, pouring one tablespoon at a time.
If you want to try creating the wafers, mix water, half a tablespoon of flour, and salt, and fill the special tool with this mixture, pouring one tablespoon at a time.
This BISCOTTIERA A FUOCO might be suitable.
Otherwise, buy ready-made wafers. You can find them online HERE.
