FILLING INGREDIENTS
~ 1 kg of sultana raisins
~ 1 glass of grappa
~ ½ glass of Marsala wine
~ ½ glass of rum
~ 1 kg of shelled walnuts
~ 200 g of amaretti cookies
~ 100 g of butter
~ 100 g of pine nuts
~ 300 g of sugar
~ 2 sachets of vanilla sugar
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
~ filling for Gubana
~ 500 g of water
~ 400 g of plain wheat flour
~ a pinch of salt
~ a pinch of sugar
~ a knob of butter
PREPARATION TIME
40 minutes, plus cooking time
FILLING PREPARATION METHOD
A couple of days before preparing the gubana, soak the raisins in the grappa, rum, and Marsala. Start by grinding the walnuts and amaretti cookies, and in a small pan, melt the butter and toast the pine nuts until golden.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients well: the ground walnuts and amaretti, the sugar, the soaked raisins, the vanilla sugar, and the pine nuts with their warm butter. Cover the filling with plastic wrap and set it aside.
DOUGH PREPARATION METHOD
First, prepare the filling for strucchi following the instructions for the Gubana di Clastra on page 21 or Nonna Rina’s Gubana on page 24. Form small balls and set them aside. Bring 500 g of water to a boil and pour it over the flour. Knead the two ingredients together until you get a smooth dough. If it’s too liquid, add some more flour, being careful not to overwork the dough. With your hands, shape the dough into logs, cut them into pieces to form large dumplings, then flatten them into oval discs.
Fill the center of each disc with about 10 g of Gubana filling. Seal the edges tightly with your fingers and dust with flour. Once all the strucchi are ready, bring a pot of water to a boil with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. Boil the strucchi for about 3 to 5 minutes (depending on their size). In a separate pan, melt butter until golden. Serve the boiled strucchi on a flat plate, sprinkled with sugar and the golden butter.
