You may think that the reason why I wander the mountains of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, is that I love nature and enjoy landscapes. That’s all true, but there’s another thing that I enjoy just as much: eating.

A recipe for mountain lovers

I love “mountain food”. That super tasty, cozy, genuine food that you can only taste when in a mountain hut. I’m talking about game pasta, everything with butter, Frico, and of course, desserts. Cakes with berries, panna cotta, yogurt, and my all-time favorite: strudel.

Luckily, Strudel is quite easy to bake. Whenever I’m homesick about mountains I prepare this recipe, and, with my eyes shut, I pretend I’m somewhere up above, in a mountain hut sipping tea by the stove.

I learned this recipe in Malga Pozôf

What else could I learn to prepare during my week in Malga Pozôf? If you don’t know Malga Pozôf or you have not read about my week there. 
Their version of the strudel is a bit different than the usual because it comprehends the hut’s dairy products. That’s why they baptized it Rotolo di Malga (Hut’s roll). And that’s the unexpected Italian recipe I’m showing you today.

I watched it being prepared almost every day, but once home I only remembered the correct dosage of a couple of ingredients, so I invented the others.  

Don’t worry, the recipe below has been tested many times. 

You could say that this is Elena’s Hut’s Roll. After all, isn’t this blog a hut?

Ingredients for one Malga Roll

For the pastry:

• 2 eggs
• 250 gr of flour (you can use white or whole flour)
• 3 spoons of sugar
• 35 gr of butter
• Half glass of milk (75 ml)
• Vanilla extract
• Lemon peels

Filling:

• 500 gr of cow ricotta
• 1 spoon of sugar
• 2 apples
• Lemon peel
• A handful o raisins
• 50 gr of nuts
• 50 gr of chocolate chip
• Cinnamon

Method

Let’s start with the pastry. Butter should already be at room temperature.
Mix together eggs and sugar, then add the milk and the vanilla extract. Grate the lemon peel and add the flour and the butter. Knead the ingredients until butter is completely absorbed and melted. Wrap the dough in film and store it in the fridge for half an hour.

In the meantime, prepare the filling. Immerge raisins in water or grappa (rum or any other sweet wine works as well) and let them rehydrate for 15 minutes. Peel the apples and cut them into little cubes. In a bowl, mix the apples with the ricotta, the sugar the chocolate chips, the lemon peel grated and the wringed raisins. Mince the nuts and add them as well. Also, add cinnamon and other spices to your taste.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it on parchment paper. Create a rectangular shape a couple of mm thick and spread the filling all over the pastry.

Help yourself with the paper to form a roll and close the two ends. Once the roll is closed perforate the surface with a fork. You can paint the pastry with egg or milk and sugar to make it shiny.
Bake for 35 minutes at 180°.

This is more or less the traditional recipe but you can also try other filling such as:

• Ricotta, chocolate chips, pears, and Baileys
• Apples, nuts, cinnamon, and breadcrumbs
• Apples, pumpkin, cinnamon, a couple of leaves of salvia, and smoked ricotta

If you try it, tag me on Instagram! @thewritersmountainhut.