Lindsay Marie Morris

The time has come: the season for baking holiday cookies! If you're looking for a uniquely Sicilian cookie recipe, consider the cuccidati. Also spelled cucidati and sometimes called buccellati, these gooey, chewy cookies are a favorite this time of year and tend to appear on St. Joseph Day altars. Reflecting the Arab influence on Sicily's foods and culture, they are typically filled with dried figs, nuts, and citrus. Their pastry-dough exterior is often covered in icing and topped with rainbow sprinkles for a colorful pop to Italian cookie platters. 

To learn more about making cuccidati, I reached out to Dave Costanza, who won first place in November's twelfth annual Cucidati Contest. The event, organized by the Sons & Daughters of Italy, C. Colombo Lodge 1315, in Pittsburg, California, raises funds for scholarships. Using a blind taste test, judges rate cookies on appearance, texture, filling, and dough. 

While Dave has entered a handful of times, this was his first top-prize win. The Antioch, California, resident was born in Pittsburg, where his Sicilian grandparents emigrated from Isola delle Femmine in the Palermo Province. 

Dave took time from his busy holiday cookie and ravioli preparation to discuss his award-winning recipe and technique with me. We were joined by Zelda LeFrak-Belleci, who not only serves as the chairman of the Cucidati Contest judging committee but also teaches how to bake the classic cookies.

 

 

How did you start making cuccidati?

Dave: I have a cousin who was a cook in the army. One day, I met him at a funeral, and we got to talking. He took me to his house and showed me how to make cuccidati. From there, I put my personal touch on the recipe. 

 

Zelda: You have to learn from somebody; like when I married into the family, my mother-in-law taught me in her kitchen how to do cuccidati. And she brought me over to show me how to make ravioli. That's how it's done.

 

I decided I would have a cuccidati cooking class. So, for the past three contests, I've offered a cooking class in my kitchen a month ahead of time.

 

What are the key ingredients?

Dave: Raisins, some kind of nuts, lots of figs. The local store here has bulk dates; when you buy them in the package, they add something, so I only used dried bulk ingredients. I add whiskey and rum and let the filling sit in the refrigerator for months at a time. 

 

What is the secret to a winning cookie?

Dave: Grind the filling up just right. I use a food-grade caulking gun. I load up the caulking gun with the filling and draw a perfect bead down the center.

 

What memories do you have of cuccidati?

Dave: I remember them lying around at Christmas time. But I wasn't a big fan until I started making them because my grandmother never made them really well. I was never a big sweets person, but I came around. 

 

Dave Costanza's award-winning cuccidati. 

 

What do you hope to share with the next generation?

Dave: My daughter-in-law helped us make them for the contest. It is a family tradition to make the ravioli and the cuccidati together. We start horsing around once we get through making the cuccidati and the ravioli.

 

Zelda: It is an opportunity to share Italian culture and come together over food. It's a family event that happens to raise money to help young people expand their horizons and give them an opportunity to go to college. 

 

 

 

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When I was growing up, holiday gatherings with my Sicilian family meant that everyone brought a favorite dish to add to supper. In addition to giardiniera, bean and tomato salad, and pasta, we could always expect trays of Italian cookies. A favorite was the tetú, a dense, chewy chocolate cookie with a light glaze. 

 

Traditionally served on All Saints' Day in Sicily, these so-called "sweets of the dead" are a hit any time of the year. Our family includes them on Christmas cookie platters, and they frequently show up on Sicilian wedding cookie tables.

 

I was thrilled to find a recipe for this classic Italian cookie on Alexa Peduzzi's Fooduzzi.com. Alexa's recipe is inspired by her Nana's. Her twist? They are plant-based. 

 

Alexa and I discussed her background and the significance of the tetú (or, as Alexa says, "to to"). 

 

 

Tell me about your background. Where is your family from?

We're from all over the boot! One of my great-grandpas was from L'Aquila, my great-grandma was from Calabria, and I had some family up in Schignano on Lake Como. 

 

What does your heritage mean to you?

When I was a kid, I actually thought everyone was Italian because celebrating that part of my heritage happened all of the time and just seemed so normal and universal.

 

I'm really proud to be Italian, largely because we're a big food family. So being Italian (to me and my family) means black olives on our fingers at dinnertime, homemade pasta swirled into savory sauces, and simple desserts like these to tos.

Walking into an Italian grocery store (like Penn Mac in the Strip District in Pittsburgh) is always the best sensory experience for me; the scent of cheese, olives, and oils smells like my childhood!

 

What are to tos, and how/when are they typically served?

At their core, to tos are chocolate cookies with a simple vanilla icing. They're crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I think there's a similar version of these cookies floating around called "meatball cookies," which is very accurate given their look before they're iced.

I'm from Pittsburgh, and the "wedding cookie table" is a very important part of our culture here. So, I saw them a lot at weddings growing up. Now, we mostly have them at Christmas, and I look forward to them every single year.

 

What is the significance of this recipe for you?

These are, hands down, my favorite cookies. 

Yes, they're delicious, but this recipe is one that I always consider "our family recipe." I've never really seen to tos anywhere else, but I always look forward to them at family gatherings. 

To tos are a simple chocolate cookie, but they're so much more than that. When I bite into them, I'm always taken back to the weddings I attended, the birthday get-togethers we had, and the visits with family that included these cookies.

They're as much a memory as they are a recipe.

 

How is this recipe different from the traditional version?

My Nana's version of this recipe is very similar to mine; mine uses vegan butter instead of regular butter. I tried to keep my version as close to the original as possible, considering the original has been my favorite treat for over 30 years! 

I'm not really sure that my Nana would have really understood my desire to make to tos plant-based, but making this recipe always makes me feel close to her, even with my tweaks. 

 

What do you hope at-home cooks and bakers will take away from your recipes?

I hope they're able to take one of my recipes and say, "Wow, this tastes great, and it's plant-based," rather than something like, "This tastes great for a plant-based recipe." 

I'm plant-based because I love animals, and I figure if I can satisfy my body with foods that don't require them, I should. 

I don't believe that there's one universal way of eating for every person, but I hope my recipes show people who are interested in plant-based options how simple, tasty, and uncomplicated they can be. 

 

What is your goal with Fooduzzi?

My goals have changed so much over the years! I started Fooduzzi almost 10 years ago, and when I first started, my goal was to take it full-time and work for myself.

That said, I soon realized that I'm a terrible boss for myself! So, it's very much a hobby and a hub where I share the recipes that I love at the moment. I'm not actively creating new recipes; I'm now sharing more of the recipes I've started making and truly love.

 

 

 

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