(This original recipe, which the museum staff in Pitagliano, Italy graciously shared with me, was translated from Hebrew into English by my dear friend, Sallie Volotzky.)

Ingredients

Dough

3 cups flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup oil

Filling

1 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Pinch of ground black pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Grated rind of 1 medium orange

2 ½ cups finely chopped walnuts

Directions:

To make the dough, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

Stir together wine and oil in a small bowl.  Using a wooden spoon, slowly stir wine/oil combination into flour well, gradually working in additional flour from the sides of the bowl. Use your hands to ultimately form mixture into a smooth and stiff dough. Cover bowl of dough and refrigerae while making filling.

To make the filling, bring the honey to a boil in a saucepan. Let simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the spices, grated orange rind, and nuts and cook an additional 5 minutes while occasionally stirring.. Remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir until the mixture cools.

Spoon mixture (it will be very stiff) onto a floured countertop and cut into 6 portions. Roll each piece into a 12” rope.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove dough from refrigerator and turn out onto a floured counter. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces and roll each one into a 13-inch long strip, roughly 1 1/2-2 inches wide. (These strips don’t need to be perfect- the dough is very easy to work with on a floured counter.)

Place a stick of the filling onto the center of each strip and work the dough around the strip until it is completely encased. Pinch together any open edges and use excess dough to patch bare spots.

Place sticks, 2-inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 22 minutes (switching the pans on the oven racks halfway through), or until sticks are just beginning to color.

Remove pans from the oven and set them onto cooling racks. After 15 minutes, carefully lift sticks off pans and let them finish cooling directly on the racks. When completely cool, wrap Sfratti in aluminum foil and refrigerate.

Just before serving Sfratti, cut each stick lengthwise on an angle into 4-6 pieces.

(Sfratti will continue to taste great, wrapped in foil and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.)