Our friend and blogger Silvia Matricardi of Umbria In & Out couldn’t let the holidays go by without sharing one of her favorite traditional Christmas dishes from her hometown of Spoleto. We join her in wishing you all a wonderful 2012!

There are memories that will be engraved on your heart forever. They are often tightly bound to strong sensations recalled by a smell or a flavour or a picture.

I have very sweet and dear memories of Christmas. To me Christmas looks like the colourful lights, balls and small figures of the Christmas tree in the dining room at my family’s house; it smells like the cinnamon of my mum’s box of spices, like the wax of the candles in our church and like the galipot of the pine which used to be our Christmas tree every year. And it tastes like cooked apples, nuts, nutmeg and candied fruit: it tastes like “Torta”.

The Torta, or better still “Attorta” as they call it here, is the typical Christmas cake in Spoleto. In my family they call it Torta, so that’s how I call it.

It is similar to a German or Austrian strudel and in fact some people think it has got the same ancestors–the Longobards–from the North who held the Duchy of Spoleto for almost two centuries; that’s probably why the Torta originates from Spoleto. It was once prepared for the main holidays throughout the year but later it became the typical cake of Christmas time, even though in some areas you can have it also at Carnival and at All Soul’s Day.

Almost every family makes its own Torta for Christmas, each one in its own variety, with its personal “touch”. Nevertheless, there are some basic ingredients that are common to any Attorta in Umbria: apples, raisins, nuts, chocolate powder or cocoa, candied fruit, as well as the dough.

In my family to make a great stuffing we always add to these basic elements pine kernels, nutmeg and grated mostaccioli (hard biscuits made with must); plus we use Alchermes liquor, another typical liquor from this area that has got an incredibly bright red color.

We don’t spread the Alchermes on the already cooked Torta, as many people do, but we add it to flour, eggs and water while making the dough. That’s why our Torta always comes out pink.

As for the stuffing, after cooking the apples with sugar we add the nuts, the grated dark chocolate, the grated mostaccioli, grated nutmeg, the raisins, the minced candy fruit and the pine kernels.

After the stuffing is ready, we prepare the dough: we work it hard with the rolling pin until it gets very thin and we shape it in an oval, then we cut it in two halves and stuff each one of them with the mixture. Then we roll each part to make a sort of snake that we position in the baking pan by twisting it. After baking for half an hour and cooling down, the Torta is ready.

At this point my mum serves it like this, while my grandmother (her mother-in-law, that is another family, another tradition) would spread liquid honey on it (as if it weren’t rich enough!).

The Torta as we make it is delicious, as it remains very soft, moist and not so sweet; we usually make 4. Our family tradition allows us to eat it for the first time at Christmas Eve and then we have it at the end of every meal, until it is over (it seldom arrives to New Year’s Eve!).

But what is great about it is the preparation process, which is a sort of ritual. We make it in two phases. The first day we prepare the stuffing: it’s a community operation that involves all the women in our family; we mince the candied fruit, peel the nuts, grate the chocolate and the nutmeg, while the apples that have been previously cut in small pieces cook with sugar. Then we mix everything and we usually let the stuffing decant for one night.

The following day, usually in the afternoon, we prepare the dough, stuff it and bake it. This happens always around December 22^nd or 23^rd.

Therefore, if you want to keep a very bright and indelible memory of Umbria you just need to enter any local café or pasticceria or bar at Christmas time and ask for a slice of “Attorta” (or Rocciata, if you are in Foligno area): none will dare to deny it to you.