Qubaita, or cubaita, is an ancient dessert from Triora, western Liguria and lower Piedmont region. Of Arab origin in the first place, qubaita is composed of waffles made of flour, water and egg white, stuffed with ground hazelnuts, walnuts, melted-over-low-heat honey, and lemon or orange grated zest.
Qubaitas, never missing from the table during Christmas time, were prepared a few days before Christmas and would accompany the family throughout the holiday season.
Now, as then, the recipe is still the same; qubaita is risking to go extinct, so let's begin!
Ingredients:
chestnut honey
100 grams walnut kernels
100 gr hazelnuts
100 grams almonds
zest of 1 orange
Hosts possibly round
Directions:
Heat the honey over medium heat together with a tablespoon of water; as it begins to foam add the nuts, previously toasted in the oven for 15 minutes at 150 °C and crushed in a mortar. Then add the orange zest finely chopped. Turn off the heat and place a teaspoon of the mixture on a wafer, close then with a second wafer; then put weight on top to flatten into the traditional disc-shaped dessert.
Credits: esedomaniincucina.blogspot.it
Deborah Bellotti
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