Buccellato (Cucciddatu)

A sweet whose name and form reach back to Roman bread. In ancient Rome the buccellatum was a ring-shaped hard bread issued to soldiers and sailors, the word tied to buccella, a morsel, and to the buccellarius who distributed it; in late antiquity, around the fifth century, Romans were already enriching such ring breads with honey and dried fruit, figs above all. Arab rule over Sicily, from the ninth century, folded in the almonds, dried figs, raisins and candied citron that still define the filling. A further strand credits the Lucchese merchants who settled in Palermo in the fourteenth century and kept a confraternity by the city's merchant loggia, bringing their own festive ring cake, the Tuscan buccellato that carries the same Roman name. The coloured diavulicchi sprinkles are tied by local legend to the demons painted in the vault of the Sala della Fontana at Palermo's Norman Zisa palace, set to guard hidden treasure as the sprinkles guard the sweet filling within. The cucciddatu is listed among Italy's traditional agri-food products.

The crust is short and lightly crisp, giving way to a dense, sticky filling that tastes of concentrated dried fig, toasted almond and warm cinnamon, sweet but not cloying, with candied orange and citron lifting the edges. The coloured sprinkles add a faint crunch and a festive gloss. It keeps for weeks and eats well with a small glass of sweet Marsala or moscato.

The filling is built for keeping. Drying figs and candying citrus strip out most of their free water and load the flesh with sugar, so the paste has a very low water activity in which moulds and bacteria cannot grow; bound with honey, itself a supersaturated sugar syrup, it stays moist and stable for weeks. The pastry is a classic pasta frolla, where butter or lard coats the flour and limits gluten development, so it bakes to a tender, short crumb that shatters cleanly rather than a chewy bread. In the oven the surface browns through the Maillard reaction and caramelising sugars, building colour and a roasted depth, while the enclosed fruit gently steams and its pectin sets the paste firm as it cools. Toasting the almonds first drives off water and develops nutty aromas, and the candied peel's essential oils perfume the whole.