Frutta Secca

Christmas Day at my grandparents’ house had an order. Antipasto galore followed by “Sauce” Supper. When that finally “ended,” the nuts and fanuk (fennel) were set in a basket, on my grandmother’s beautiful Christmas table. This was the official “break” period before dessert came out — a pause that still involved… eating. It gave the women time to disappear into the kitchen, clean up, and pull out the nice dishes for the grand finale, while the men lit cigars, broke out the cards, started gambling, and cracked the nuts with those silver nut crackers.

During this time, the only mess you were allowed to make was the pile of shells in front of you. As a kid, the cracking sound and the Christmas music playing made everything feel just right.

Our family story is that fennel is good for digestion. I guess eating it allowed you to eat even more and not feel indigestion. The mixed shelled nuts just came along with the fennel, and no one really knew why. It was a ritual – I remember us kids hunting for every last piece of walnut treasure after the big crack.

Recently, I learned the origin story behind this tradition. In Italian, this mix of nuts and dried fruit is called frutta secca—literally “dried fruit,” culturally the idea includes nuts, figs, dates, apricots, and raisins. Sweet dried fruits and nuts have deep roots in southern Italy and Sicily, where the land is rich and fertile enough to grow these foods. They also store well, travel well, and don’t cost anything if you grew them on the hills or cost very little if you bought them from your farmer neighbor.

I learned that frutta secca, in the old world, was the Christmas dessert (how interesting!) because my people didn’t have money for the ingredients or to buy cakes and pastries. That was for the richer and the aristocrats.

The days of Christmas at my grandparents’ house are long gone, but the basket of nuts still sits on my sister’s table and mine whenever we’re hosting a holiday. When you see the vintage nutcrackers and the frutta secca, it means: sit, stay a while, and relax. Be with your family and friends, cherish this time, love them, and make memories together.

Merry Christmas!

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