If you’re not aware, a sformato is something like a savory flan. Or perhaps a soufflé without the puff. The basic recipe could hardly be simpler—you make a batter of puréed or finely minced or diced main ingredient, typically but not always a vegetable, mixed with béchamel and eggs, then bake it until set.

Practically any vegetable you fancy is fair game for sformato making, so you can serve it all year round: peas or asparagus in the spring, zucchini or green beans in the summer, pumpkin or mushrooms in the autumn or winter, and so on. For this week’s post I decided I’d make a sformato di spinaci. Spinach makes an especially fine sformato, as its flavor lends itself beautifully to pairing with cheese and béchamel. These days you can find spinach all year long, but with fresh young spinach is in the markets—but not for long—now’s the perfect time for sformato di spinaci.

Serve it simple or fancy, your choice…

Classically, a sformato is baked in a loaf or ring pan and served unmolded, then sliced and sometimes napped with a sauce. (Hence the name, which means ‘unmolded’.) Served like this, it makes an elegant antipasto fit for the fanciest dinner party. Back in the day, in fact, it was often served this way as an intermezzo between the first and second courses during extravagant multicourse banquets. These days it could also be a light vegetable-centric main course.

But for everyday cooking, it’s not uncommon to bake a sformato in baking dish or cassrole and then serve it by the spoonful directly from its cooking vessel. In this homey incarnation, a sformato can serve also as a side dish, though admittedly a rather rich one, best reserved for accompanying simply roasted or gilled meats or fish.

Ingredients

• 500g (1 lb) young spinach, trimmed of its stems
• One half recipe of béchamel sauce
• 3 eggs
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) of grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• butter, as needed

Directions

Prep the spinach

Wash the spinach leaves well in a large mixing bowl and pour out the water. If you find any grit at the bottom of the bowl, repeat. Otherwise, transfer the still wet spinach leaves to a large sauté pan or rondeau. Cook, covered, over moderate heat, just until they wilt. This should take no more than a couple of minutes.

Transfer the spinach to a colander and run them under cold water. Then let them drain.

When the spinach has thoroughly drained, take them by the handful and squeeze it dry. Mince them rather finely.

Prepare the béchamel

Following the directions in this recipe, prepare a half batch of béchamel sauce.

Let cool.

Mix and bake the batter

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the spinach and bechamel. Then add the cheese, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then add the eggs.

Pour the batter into a well buttered baking dish. Dot the top with bits of butter.

Place the baking dish on a large roasting pan or baking sheet and add water all around.

Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 30-45 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned on top. Test doneness by inserting a small knife into the sformato. If the knife comes out clean, it should be done.

If not browned on top to your liking, you can run the sformato under the broiler for a minute or two.

Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes on sformato di spinaci

As mentioned at the top, the recipe involves a bit of work to prep the spinach and the béchamel, but other than that it’s about as straightforward as it gets. Just mix the batter and bake. Normally the trickiest part of a sformato making is the unmolding, and this homey way of serving it eliminates even that bother.

Prepping the spinach

It used to be that spinach was sold very mature. That kind of spinach, with crinkly dark green leaves and thick stems, required pulling the leaves off their stems. And lots of washing to eliminate its massive amounts of grit. Nowadays, we are lucky. Spinach is usually sold young and pre-washed. Sometimes even pre-trimmed of their stems.

So adjust your approach accordingly. Trim off any stems, unless they’re very slender. And I would still give the spinach a rinse regardless just to be on the safe side. Young spinach only needs a quick wilting as described in the recipe above. Older spinach is tougher, and should be boiled in lots of water.

And if you want to eliminate this prep work, you could use frozen, already chopped spinach. Just defrost it before adding it to the batter.

Preparing the béchamel

In Italy they sell premade, shelf-stable béchamel sauce, something I haven’t seen in North American markets except online at rather unreasonable prices. So it’s best to make your own. It can be a bit tricky to achieve a lumpfree béchamel, but if you use Wondra flour (or its equivalent) it’s very simple indeed. See our post on béchamel sauce for details.

You can dispense with the béchamel and use ricotta instead. For this recipe, you could use as little as 250g (1/2 lb) or as much as 500g (1 lb) the eqvuilvent of a small tub, depending on your taste. Most recipes, however, land on the lower end of this scale. Your sformato won’t be quite as creamy as it would be if you use béchamel, but it will be a bit lighter and plenty tasty. Spinach and ricotta get along famously and appear frequently in Italian cookery.

Variations

Recipes for sformati are all over the map when it comes to the number of eggs and how thick the bechamel should be.

For this recipe, which is meant to produce a soft and spoonable sformato for serving straight from the casserole as a side dish, I’ve gone light(ish) on the eggs and made a bechamel of standard thickness. If you really want to lean into the veg for a rather lighter dish, you can double the amount of spinach (or half the amount of bechamel).

Sformato di spinaci as an antipasto

If you want to serve your sformato di spinaci in the classic way as an antipasto or even a light main course, then add another egg or even two, and/or double the amount of flour in the béchamel. That should produce a sformato stiff enough to retain its shape when it’s unmolded.

As mentioned at the top, you bake the batter in a loaf pan or ring mold rather than a baking dish (without dotting the top with butter) for 30-45 minutes. There’s no need for the top to brown, as it will wind up on the bottom of your unmolded sformato, but the batter needs to be fully cooked. For an extra fancy presentation, you can bake sformatini (little sformatos) in individual ramekins, They only take 15-20 minutes baking. (See this post for details.)

When it’s done, unmold your sformato onto a serving platter and slice it up. Or turn your sformatini onto individual plates.

And if you really want to gild the lily, nap your sformato or sformatini with a sauce made from parmigiano-reggiano or another meltable cheese like perhaps taleggio melted with heavy cream. You can find the recipe here.

Other variations

For a richer, more substantial sformato di spinaci, you can add other melting cheeses to the batter like a cubed gruyere or Emmanthal. And for carnivores, a handful of cubed cooked ham would turn this into a very substantial antipasto or a light main course.

Finally, if you enjoy a bit of crunch, you can line the baking dish with breadcrumbs and top it with breadcrumbs as well.

Making sformato di spinaci ahead and leftovers

This recipe leands itself well to making ahead. Just reheat it gently in a low oven for about 10-15 minutes, just long enough to warm it up a bit. It is also not bad at room temperature. Do the same with leftovers.

Print

Sformato di spinaci

Spinach Flan

Servings 6

Calories 405.8kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g young spinach, trimmed of its stems
• One half recipe of béchamel sauce
• 3 eggs
• 100 g grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• butter as needed

Metric – US

Instructions

Prep the spinach

• Wash the spinach leaves well in a large mixing bowl and pour out the water. If any grit is left at the bottom of the bowl, repeat. Otherwise, transfer the still wet spinach leaves to a large sauté pan or rondeau. Cook, covered, over moderate heat, just until they wilt. This should take no more than a couple of minutes.
• Transfer the spinach to a colander and run them under cold water. Then let them drain.
• When the spinach has thoroughly drained, take them by the handful and squeeze it dry. Mince them rather finely.

Prepare the béchamel

• Following the directions in this recipe, prepare a half batch of béchamel sauce.
• Let cool.

Mix and bake the batter

• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the spinach and bechamel. Then add the cheese, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then add the eggs.
• Pour the batter into a well buttered baking dish. Dot the top with bits of butter.
• Place the baking dish on a large roasting pan or baking sheet and add water all around.
• Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 30-45 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned on top. Test doneness by inserting a small knife into the sformato. If the knife comes out clean, it should be done.
• If not browned on top to your liking, you can run the sformato under the broiler for a minute or two.
• Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 405.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 7.6g | Protein: 12.5g | Fat: 37.3g | Saturated Fat: 22.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.5g | Cholesterol: 191.1mg | Sodium: 411.4mg | Potassium: 605.7mg | Fiber: 1.8g | Sugar: 2.9g | Vitamin A: 9309.4IU | Vitamin C: 23.9mg | Calcium: 297.5mg | Iron: 2.8mg

The post Sformato di spinaci (Spinach Flan) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

But Puglia is no slouch in the meat department, either. I won’t soon forget my first encounter with bombette pugliesi during a recent trip to Puglia. Literally meaning “little bombs”, these delicious parcels of pork filled with pancetta, caciocavallo cheese and minced garlic and parsley, then grilled until golden brown, really do live up to their name. They virtually explode with flavor in your mouth.

Bombette are an absolute must try for your next trip to Puglia. Gastronomically they are perhaps most closely associated with the town of Martina Franca and the surrounding Valle d’Itra, about an hour’s drive south from Bari. But their popularity means you can find them elsewhere in the region—I had my introduction to bombette in Lecce—and indeed all over the country.

That said, there’s no need to wait until your next trip to experience this little flavor bombs. The recipe for bombette is really quite simple to make at home, involving just a handful of ingredients. Now that grilling season is here, it’s the perfect time to give them a try. And if you don’t have a grill, no worries. You can make these in the oven or on the stovetop as well.

The classic cut of meat used for making bombette is the capocollo, the same neck cut used to make the eponymous cured cold cut, another specialty of Martina Franca. It’s usually called pork collar or coppa in English. Pork shoulder butt, from just next to the neck, makes a decent subsitute.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) pork collar or well marbled pork shoulder, cut into thin slices
• salt and pepper

For the filling:

• 200 g (7 oz) pancetta, thinly sliced
• 200 g (7 oz) caciocavallo cheese, cut into cubes or thin slices
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley

Directions

Mince the garlic and parsley with a knife or mezzaluna together until you have a rough paste. Set aside until needd.

Take the pork slices and place a sheet of parchment or wax paper over them. Pound them gently to flatten them out, taking care not to break them up. Season them on both sides with salt and pepper.

Lay a slice or two of the pancetta on top of each pork slice, then a piece of the caciocavallo, leaving a margin on the sides. Sprinkle with some of the garlic and parsley mince.

Tucking the sides inward, roll each slice up tightly to form little parcels no bigger than about 5 cm (2 inches) wide.

Skewer the parcels with toothpicks to keep them together or use a long skewer to hold several parcels together (as pictured below).

Grill the bombette on all sides for about 12-15 minutes or so, until cooked through and golden brown on all sides.

Serve right away.

Notes on bombette pugliesi

One or two bombette can be served as a snack—they were traditionally a street food sold in paper cones—or an antipasto. In large portions, they make for a fine main course. Or make them part of a mixed grill at your next cookout.

The key to making bombette is to make sure to roll them up tightly, with the sides tucked inward, so the cheese doesn’t ooze out while they cook. (Ask me how I know…) It can be a bit fussy but it’s not hard work.

If you are using skewers, make sure to pass them close to the fold and pack the bombette tightly on the skewer so they help each other stay closed. If you are using toothpicks, make sure to close the sides as well as the folds.

As mentioned, the bombette should be quite small, no more than 5 cm (2 inches) wide, so they cook through relatively quickly. If need be, you can cut your pork slices in half.

I find it’s best to grill bombette over indirect heat so they have time to cook through. Then, if they’re not browned to your liking, give them a moment or two directly over the coals, turning them to brown evenly. If you want to grill them over direct heat, do make sure that they are not too close to the coals. These little bombs have lots of fat that can cause flare ups.

If you don’t have a grill…

As mentioned at the top, if you don’t have an outdoor grill or the weather isn’t cooperating, or if you would simply rather not grill your bombette, you could use a stove top grill pan. Or pan fry them gently in a little olive oil, turning them from time to time. (Covering the skillet helps them to cook through.) You can also roast your bombette in a hot (200C/400F) oven for about 20-30 minutes. Of these alternative methods, I find oven roasting the most satisfying. And also the easiest.

That said, grilling really does provide the best looking and best tasting bombette. There’s nothing like that faintly smoky taste and gorgeous color that grilling lends to the meat. You can even see the difference… Just take a gander:

The grilled bombette are in the front, behind are the oven roasted ones. I know which ones I’d rather eat!

Sourcing and choosing the pork

Pork neck, aka collar or coppa, or capocollo in Italian, is the cut you ideally want to use here. Pork collar (as opposed to neck bones) can be hard to find here in North America, but several online butchers carry it.

Asian markets often sell thin slices of pork collar for use in barbecue and hot pot. The slices are paper thin so there’s no need to pound them. They are quite economical and actually make decent bombette, but they are very delicate, so you need to handle them very gingerly.

A decent substitute for pork collar is the well marbled front section of the pork shoulder right next to the neck called the butt or sometimes Boston butt.

Where I live both pork collar and pork shoulder are generally sold as a roast, so I do my own slicing. It slices more easily if the roast is semi-frozen. A 30 minute spell in the freezer should do the trick. Try to get them just as thin as you can manage, ideally no more than say 30mm (1/8 inch).

You can also ask your friendly local butcher—if you’re lucky enough have one— to do the job. If you don’t need the whole roast for bombette, no worries. Pork collar makes an absolutely succulent roast thanks for its extravagant marbling, while pork shoulder can be ground for use in meatballs and meatloaf, or cubed for stew.

Unless your slices are paper thin, pounding is an imporant step to tenderize the meat and also provide more surface area for the filling. But do take care not to overdo it. You want to thin the slice, not pulverize it!

Finding caciocavallo and its substitutes

Caciocavallo is not the easiest cheese to source, but it’s available at better Italian delis or online at sources such as (in North America) igourmet, Murray’s Cheese, Alma Goumet or amazon.com. Otherwise, you could substitute a mild provolone or even another meltable cheese.

Pancetta

Where I live you can buy packets of pre-sliced pancetta. They work perfectly in this recipe. Otherwise you can ask for thinly sliced pancetta at the meat counter.

Variations

I haven’t come across too many variations on the original recipe other than the cooking method. The main one I’ve seen involves rolling the bombette in breadcrumbs before cooking.

I’ve also seen some recipes that call for another cured pork instead of the pancetta, such as Speck or even, in a slightly jocular vein, cured capocollo.

Making bombette pugliesi ahead

You can prepare the parcels well ahead of time, then grill them when you’re ready to eat. They only take a few minutes. Bombette are best right off the grill, but that said, they are quite tasty at room temperature, though you lose that special mouth feel from the melted cheese. They can also be gently reheated.

Print

Bombette pugliesi

Course Antipasto, Main Course

Cuisine Puglia

Keyword grilled, pan-fried, pork, roasted

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1 kilo 2 lbs pork collar or well marbled pork shoulder, cut into thin slices
• salt and pepper

For the filling:

• 200 g 7 oz pancetta, thinly sliced
• 200 g 7 oz caciocavallo cheese, cut into thick slices
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley

Instructions

• Mince the garlic and parsley with a knife or mezzaluna together until you have a rough paste. Set aside until needd.
• Take the pork slices and place a sheet of parchment or wax paper over them. Pound them gently to flatten them out, taking care not to break them up. Season them on both sides with salt and pepper.
• Now lay a slice or two of the pancetta on top of each pork slice, then a slice or two of the caciocavallo, leaving a margin on the sides. Sprinkle with some of the garlic and parsley mince.
• Tucking the sides inward, then roll each slice up tightly to form little parcels no bigger than about 5 cm (2 inches) wide.
• Skewer the parcels with a toothpick to keep them together or use a long skewer to hold several parcels together.
• Grill the bombette on all sides for about 12-15 minutes or so, until cooked through and golden brown on all sides.
• Serve right away.

The post Bombette pugliesi appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

When we were living in the center of town, close to the Campo de’ fiori, we’d often go up the Gianicolo, a high hill just across the river with a lovely view of the city, for our May Day picnics. When we moved to a country setting on the outskirts, we could just sit outside on the terrace or camp out in the garden. And we would often come across strangers picnicking just down the hill from our house. Technically speaking they were trespassing but hey, it was May Day after all…

The contents of our picnic basket would vary, but there was one item that never failed to make an appearance: fave e pecorino, or raw fava beans and pecorino. Not really a proper dish at all, you just set out the fava beans, still in their pods, and a hunk of pecorino cheese. Each picnicker opens the pods for themselves and eats the raw fava beans they find inside with a bit of pecorino, washed down with a well-chilled dry white wine, preferably a crisp Frascati from the nearby Alban Hills. Odd as it may sound at first, once you try it, you realize it’s a combination that was just meant to be.

Fave e pecorino as a dressing for pasta

This week’s featured dish, pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino, uses this classic duo as a dressing for pasta, supported by a flavor base of guanciale, the quintessentially Roman cured pork jowl that turns up in just about every iconic Roman pasta other than cacio e pepe.

There are are a few different ways to prepare pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino. The following recipe is the one I think is probably the biggest crowd pleaser, as it produces a proper sauce and, since in this recipe the fava beans are puréed, you can dispense with the rather tedious task of peeling the fava beans. But if you’re interested, you can learn more about those other methods in the Notes below.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) pasta of your choice (see Notes)
• 250 g (1/2 lb) guanciale, cut into cubes or strips
• 500 g (1 lb) de-podded fava beans
• 125g (4-1/2 oz) freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions

In a large braiser or sauté pan, sauté the guanciale very gently in a small amount of olive oil until it has lightly browned and rendered most (but not all) of its fat. Remove and set aside until needed. Do not discard the rendered fat.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in the fava beans and parboil them for about 3-5 minutes, depending on their size. Remove them with a slotted spoon and plunge them immediately into a bowl of ice water, then drain. Do not discard the cooking water.

Setting aside a few fava beans for garnish, place the rest in a blender along with the rendered guanciale fat, a small ladleful of your cooking water (enough to make the purée thick but pourable) and a pinch of salt.

Blend until perfectly smooth, then pour the resulting purée into the pan where you sautéed the guanciale. Keep warm over the barest flame while you cook the pasta.

Bring the water you cooked the fava beans in back to a boil and throw in your pasta. Cook until slightly under al dente.

Transfer the pasta with a skimmer to the pan with the fava bean purée. Turn on the flame and simmer the pasta, along with another ladleful of pasta water, in the purée for a minute or two, until the pasta is fully cooked and the purée coats the pasta nicely.

Off heat, add the grated cheese and toss well, adding a bit more of the cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Serve right away, topped with the guanciale and reserved fava beans.

Notes on pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino

There aren’t too many ways to wrong in this easy pasta. I’d just take care salt the cooking water and purée lightly, as both the guanciale fat and especially the pecorino are quite salty. Better to undersalt at first, then adjust if you need to right before serving.

Choosing your pasta

You will find recipes for pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino with both long and short pasta shapes. To my mind, a short pasta like rigatoni or mezze maniche are ideal for catching this sauce. But you will find recipes that call for fettuccine, tonnarelli (the Roman version of spaghetti alla chitarra) or just plain old spaghetti. Truth be told, you can use just about any shape you fancy.

Choosing and prepping your fava beans

Fresh fava beans can be hard to find where I live. There are a couple of supermarkets near me that carry it. You’ll more likely to find them at health/organic oriented markets as well as Latino ones. They are also available from my old standby Alma Gourmet. If you can’t find fresh ones, Melissa’s Produce sells pre-shelled and steamed fava beans, in which case you need not parboil them, of course. You could also use frozen fava beans. And in a pinch, edamame, butter beans or baby liman beans could serve as substitutes.

To peel or not to peel?

Fresh fava beans come in large pods, which of course, you need to remove to get at the beans. The beans themselves also have a skin that can be rather tough, especially on more mature, larger beans. Usually in a bunch of favas you’ll find a whole range of sizes, from very small (almost the size of a pea) to quite large. Take a look at the photo to the left. One tell tale sign that a fava needs peeling is that dark stripe down its side.

To peel fava beans easily, blanch them quickly in boiling water, then plunge them in cold water. Peel away an opening in the skin and you should then be able to pop the bean out easily.

As mentioned at the top, however, since most of the favas are puréed, you don’t need to peel them, so long as you have a powerful enough blender (such as a Vitamix) that can pulverize the skins. If not, you could pass the purée through a fine sieve to catch any stray bits of skin. Use your judgment for the favas you use for garnish.

Guanciale

Guanciale is a must to give your pasta that true Roman taste. With the recent popularity of Roman pastas, it’s becoming easier to find in better supermarkets, Italian delis and, of course, online. That said, you could use pancetta if that’s all you’re able to source. I sometimes even use salt pork, which I’ve covered with pepper and other spices and left to ‘cure’ in the fridge for a few days, as a substitute.

If you are using guanciale, go easy on the olive oil. I find it does help get things going but, since guanciale is quite fatty, you only need a few drops, really. Many Roman recipes have you render the guanciale in a dry pan, but for me that often results in a smokey kitchen. Also make sure to go low and slow with the guanciale. Because of its high fat content, guanciale has a tendency to smoke and burn if you use too high a flame.

Finally, you want to only lightly brown your guanciale. Enough to render most of the fat but leaving the inside of your cubes or strips still fairly soft.

Variations

Variations on the recipe for pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino include adding the grated cheese to the blender when you make the fava purée. This gives the purée a creamier texture. But if you go this route, you should avoid cooking the purée too much at the end. as the pecorino turns unpleasantly sharp when subjected to high heat.

You can also add some fresh herbs if you like. Mint—especially the prized mentuccia aka nepitella so prized by Romans—is especially nice, I think. Add it to blender or, for a more assertive flavor, toss it in at the end with the pecorino.

Other methods for making pasta guanciale fave e pecorino

As mentioned at the top, there are various to ways to make this dish that don’t involve puréeing the fava beans.

One method is to braise the fava beans directly in the pan with the guanciale along with, if you like, some chopped shallot or onion. Sometimes you a dizzle in some white wine, sometimes just water to braise your beans. For this method, since the fava beans remain whole, you should use very young ones or, if they’re large, parboil and peel them first. The pasta is then tossed with the braised beans and lots of pecorino.

There’s yet a third option: Braise half your fava beans, then use the other half to make your purée. This is the most elaborate method but you get the best of both worlds, so the speak.

Yet another method has you use the fava beans raw, or nearly so. You quickly blanch the fava beans, then peel them and use them as a topping for pasta with tossed with sautéed guanciale and pecorino.

Making pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino ahead

Like most pasta dishes, this dish is best made at the last minute. But you can certainly make it partially ahead, up to the point where you’ve browned the guanciale and prepared the fava purée, leaving only the cooking of the pasta to the last minute.

Print

Pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino

Pasta with Guanciale, Fava Beans and Pecorino Cheese

Course Primo

Cuisine Lazio

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 500 g pasta of your choice
• 250 g guanciale cut into cubes or strips
• 500 g fava beans de-podded
• 125 g pecorino romano cheese freshly grated
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Metric – US

Instructions

• In a large braiser or sauté pan, sauté the guanciale very gently in a small amount of olive oil until it has lightly browned and rendered most (but not all) of its fat. Remove and set aside until needed. Do not discard the rendered fat.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in the fava beans and parboil them for about 3-5 minutes, depending on their size. Remove them with a slotted spoon and plunge them immediately into a bowl of ice water, then drain. Do not discard the cooking water.
• Setting aside a few fava beans for garnish, place the rest in a blender along with the rendered guanciale fat, a small ladleful of your cooking water (enough to make the purée thick but pourable) and a pinch of salt.
• Blend until perfectly smooth, then pour the resulting purée into the pan where you sautéed the guanciale. Keep warm over the barest flame while you cook the pasta.
• Bring the water you cooked the fava beans in back to a boil and throw in your pasta. Cook until slightly under al dente.
• Transfer the pasta with a skimmer to the pan with the fava bean purée. Turn on the flame and simmer the pasta, along with another ladleful of pasta water, in the purée for a minute or two, until the pasta is fully cooked and the purée coats the pasta nicely.
• Off heat, add the grated cheese and toss well, adding a bit more of the cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
• Serve right away, topped with the guanciale and reserved fava beans.

The post Pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

The recipe follows the typical pattern for countless Italian braises. You start, as usual, with a flavor base or soffritto. It’s a supremely simple one of onion—which helps accentuate the sweetness of the peas—sautéed in olive oil, to which I sometimes add a tiny bit of garlic for savor. Then in goes the cut up cuttlefish to mingle with the aromatics for a few minutes, followed by a splash of white wine, which you cook off before adding tomato, either a lot or just a bit as you prefer. Or, for that matter, none at all. Then you cover the pot and let the cuttlefish braise gently until tender. The peas go towards the end of cooking and simmer until they’re done.

It’s an iterative process that layers flavor upon flavor, balancing savory and sweet notes to produce a harmonious whole. And yet, it all come together in less than an hour.

Since cuttlefish is hard to find where I live, I make this dish with squid, which is a bit less ‘meaty’ than cuttlefish but still works perfectly.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 persons

• 500g (1 lb) cuttlefish or squid, cleaned and cut up into rings
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 300g (7 oz) canned tomatoes, crushed or passed through a food mill, or passata
• 250g (1/2 lb) peas, frozen or fresh
• White wine
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Directions

In a large braiser or sauté pan, gently sauté the chopped onion in abundant olive oil until soft and translucent. If using, add the minced garlic and sauté for just a few seconds until you can smell its aroma.

Add the cuttlefish/squid to the pan. Allow the pieces to sauté along with the onion to absorb the flavors for a few minutes, seasoning with the salt and pepper. (It will probably shed quite a bit of water, but that’s perfectly normal. No need to try to boil if off.) 

Add a splash of white wine, allow it to cook off for a few minutes, until you can no longer smell the alcohol.

Add the tomatoes, mix everything well, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer very gently until the cuttlefish/squid is perfectly tender. (See Notes below regarding cooking times.) Add water from time to time as needed, if the sauce becomes too dense.

When the cuttlefish/squid is tender, uncover the pot and add the peas. Continue simmering until the peas are just tender, about 5 minutes if frozen, 15-20 if fresh.

Taste and adjust for seasoning and serve hot. 

Notes on seppie con piselli

As you can see, this is a truly easy peasy recipe If you’re using pre-cleaned baby cuttlefish or squid and frozen peas, you should be able to whip it up in a half hour. Double that time if you’re using mature seafood and fresh peas.

Cooking times

As mentioned at the top, you can use the traditional cuttlefish for this dish or squid. They both come in different sizes, which will determine its cooking times.

It’s a truism that you need to cook these cephalopods either for a very short time over high heat (as in fried calamari) or low and slow. It’s the latter method you use here. Cooking times can vary enormously depending on the size and age, from about 20-30 minutes for baby squid to 45-60 minutes for mature cuttlefish. The best method is just to taste as you go.

If you’re using mature cuttlefish or squid, you can cut down the cooking times with a pressure cooker. Once you are ready to simmer the squid and tomatoes, bring the cooker up to pressure and cook for 15-20 minutes. Then release the pressure quickly and proceed as per the recipe. You may find that the sauce is a bit thin—there is very little evaporation in pressure cooking. If so, just simmer uncovered for a few minutes to reduce before adding the peas.

Prepping cuttlefish and squid

If there was any complication to making this dish back in the day, it was in the cleaning of the cuttlefsh or squid. The method is essentially the same for both: You pull the head off, then remove the cuttlebone and innards from its insides. For large cuttlefish you should remove the purple skin. Then you pull the tentacles off the hard body, gingerly remove the ink sac and cut away the beak and eyes. Rinse everything under cold water, then cut the head into rings and, if large, the tentcles into bite sized pieces. If this all seems overwhelming, check out this step by step guide or watch this video:

Fortunately, these days cuttlefish and squid are often sold already pre-cleaned and sometimes also pre-cut. Or you can ask your fishmonger to clean the cuttlefish or squid for you. 

The peas

As for the peas, I generally use frozen ones, which are easy to find and really quite good. If you are using fresh peas, make sure they are really fresh. My own experience with fresh peas has been pretty disappointing. They tend to be ‘over the hill’, lacking sweetness and having a mealy texture. Frozen peas take almost no time to cook, 5 minutes or less, while fresh ones will take about 15 minutes.

Variations

If you like, add a bit of hot red pepper to the soffrito, but if you do, go easy. Too much spice would overwhelm the flavors of both the peas and the squid. Some recipes have you add minced parsely to the soffritto or sometimes at the end. Others call for shallot instead of onion.

As mentioned, feel free to add more or less tomato as your like. And if you prefer, use cherry tomatoes instead of canned or passata. You can also make seppie con piselli in bianco, which is to say without tomato. After the wine, add water or vegetable broth to almost cover the cuttlefish/squid and proceed to braise per the main recipe.

A recipe for seppie coi piselli, by the way, is mentioned in Artusi. His version is made in bianco  and the soffrito is made with garlic and parsley in addition to the onion. And, according to Le ricette regionali italiane (Solaris 1995) a similar dish—in a tomato sauce but minus the peas—is called sepe a’ la veneziana, or Venetian-style cuttlefish. A nearly identical dish to the Venetian one but made with calamari instead of cuttlefish, called calamari in umido, or stewed calamari, is included in La cucina napoletana (Newton Compton 1992). Clearly, this dish gets around…

Making seppie con piselli ahead

Like many braised dishes, you can make seppie con piselli entirely ahead and reheat it when you’re ready to heat. That said, if you want to preserve the brightness of the peas, I’d braise the cuttlefish/squid ahead and then add the peas when you reheat it. They only take a few minutes, enough time for the seafood to heat through.

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Seppie con piselli (Roman Style Braised Squid with Peas)

Course Main Course

Cuisine Lazio

Keyword braised

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 500 g cuttlefish or squid, cleaned and cut up into rings
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 300 g canned tomatoes crushed or passed through a food mill, or passata
• 250 g peas frozen or fresh
• White wine
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Metric – US

Instructions

• In a large braiser or sauté pan, gently sauté the chopped onion in abundant olive oil until soft and translucent. If using, add the minced garlic and sauté for just a few seconds until you can smell its aroma.
• Add the cuttlefish/squid to the pan. Allow the pieces to sauté along with the onion to absorb the flavors for a few minutes, seasoning with the salt and pepper. (It will probably shed quite a bit of water, but that’s perfectly normal. No need to try to boil if off.)
• Add a splash of white wine, allow it to cook off for a few minutes, until you can no longer smell the alcohol.
• Add the tomatoes, mix everything well, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer very gently until the cuttlefish/squid is perfectly tender. (See Notes below regarding cooking times.) Add water from time to time as needed, if the sauce becomes too dense.
• When the cuttlefish/squid is tender, uncover the pot and add the peas. Continue simmering until the peas are just tender, about 5 minutes if frozen, 15-20 if fresh.
• Taste and adjust for seasoning and serve hot.

The post Seppie con piselli (Roman Style Braised Squid with Peas) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

The dish, called bigoi co’ l’arna in the local dialect, was originally a kind of piatto antispreco—a by product of boiled duck meant to use parts of the bird that might otherwise be thrown away. While duck itself was served as a second course with sauces such as the local favorite pearà, the giblets were chopped up and sautéed in butter as a sauce for a first course of bigoli, which were cooked in the duck’s cooking broth.

Well here’s a contemporary take on the dish I suspect would be more appealing to modern tastes. You take your duck, skin it and bone it, then mince the meat. Using the rendered skin as your cooking fat, you sauté the minced meat with a soffritto of aromatic vegetables and then braise them, either with or without a bit of tomato, for a couple of hours until it all turns into a rich, intensely flavorful sauce. Meanwhile you make a broth from the bones for thinning the sauce and boiling the pasta.

It’s a dish that, like its ancestor, doesn’t waste a thing. And tastes intensely of duck. Fresh bigoli have a rough texture and chewy texture, perfect for catching and absorbing this rich sauce. In this version of the dish, you lose your second course, but you won’t miss it. It can serve easily as a one dish meal, or a hefty first course before a light second.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 400g (14 o) bigoli, preferably fresh

For the duck ragù:

• 1 kg (2 lb) duck legs or 750g (1-/2 lb) duck breast
• 1 onion, peeled and finely minced
• 1 stalk celery, peeled and finely minced
• 1 Tb tomato paste (optional)
• white wine
• butter
• salt and pepper
• a sprig of fresh sage
• a bay leaf

For the duck broth:

• Bones from the duck legs
• 1 onion cut in half, left unpeeled
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 carrot, trimmed and peeled
• A sprig of two of fresh parsley
• A bay leaf
• salt

Directions

Prep the duck

Skin the duck pieces and set the skin aside until needed. If using duick legs, cut the meat off the bones and start making your broth with the bones as instructed below.

Cut the duck meat into very small cubes. (Or use a meat ginder.)

Simmer the duck broth

Place the duck bones along with aromatics and herbs in a large pot with enough water to cover by a good three fingers and a good pinch of salt.

Bring to a simmer, skimming off any scum that might rise to the surface. Continue simmering at least an hour.

Render the duck fat

Take the duck skin into largish pieces. Place it in a cassreole or sauté pan with a small drizzle of vegetable oil. Let go under a gentle flame, stirring from time to time, until the fat is complete rendered out and the skin has crisped up. (Think crispy bacon.)

Remove the cracklings and set aside.

Prepare the duck ragù

Mince the onion and celery together just as finely as you can. (A food processor works well here.)

Sauté the minced onion and celery gentlyy in the casserole or sauté pan with the rendered duick fat until they are perfectly soft. Lightly salt as you go, and add a drizzle of water from time to time to prevent browing.

Add the duck meat and mix with the butter and aromatics. Raise the heat and continue sauteing over a lively flame until all the duck juices have cooked off and the duck has just lightly browned.

Add the wine and let it cook off as well. Then add a ladleful of the simmering duck broth, the sage and bay leaf and, if using, the tomato paste.

Simmer for a good two hours, stirring from time to time and adding a bit of broth or water as needed if things are drying out too much. The sauce will be done when the duck meat is perfectly tender and the sauce is dark and thick. Keep it fairly liquid, however, as bigoli, especially if fresh, is very absorbent.

Cook and dress the bigoli

Remove the duck bones and aromatics from the broth. Add enough water if need be to cook the pasta, then bring the broth to a rolling boil and salt well.

Toss in the bigoli and cook until al dente.

When the bigoli are done, transfer them to the casserole with the duck ragù, along with a small ladleful of the duck broth.

Toss everything together for a minute or two, until the ragù clings to the pasta strands, adding more broth if needed.

Serve right away, with some grated chese on the side for those who want it.

Notes on bigoli con ragù d’anatra

This dish is one of the few examples in Italian cookery of pairing pasta with poultry. Other cultures (especially Americans, it seems) love the combination, but most Italians consider chicken on pasta a culinary abomination. That said, there are a few rare, little known exceptions, like the lasagnette alla cacciatora di pollo we featured some time back. Duck, for some reason, is more acceptable, and there are a few classic pasta and duck dishes like this one in the Italian repertoire.

In any event, needless to say, bigoli con ragù d’anatra is not exactly an every day dish. You should budget about 3 hours for its preparation, although you can reduce that a lot if you use a pressure cooker (see below). That said, besides the somewhat fussy prep work involved, the actual cooking is pretty straightforward.

Bigoli

As explained in our post on bigoli in salsa, bigoli are a kind of thick extruded long pasta typical of the Veneto. Click here to learn more.

They are very hard to find here in the US, but dried bigoli can sometimes be sourced online. And, as mentioned at the top, I just found a source for fresh bigoli from Verona-based Pasticio de Angeglis via Shopify. (US readers: beware of tariffs if you order them directly from Italy.)

You can also try your hand at making them yourself. A little chef’s tip: try to find duck eggs for an extra ‘ducky’ taste experience.

There are some acceptable substitutes for bigoli. Perhaps the closest pasta are pici from Tuscany, but they can be equally hard to find and, in any event, they are rolled not extruded, so have a different texture. And although they lack the same chewiness, the easiest substitution would be spaghettoni (thick spaghetti). Or even regular spaghetti. You will find recommendations for bucatini as a substitute, though to my mind they are a bit too thick.

The ragù, I find, also goes very nicely with ribbon shapred egg pastas like tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle. These aren’t terribly DOC choice, but in fact there is a lovely Tuscan dish of pappardelle with duck, pappardelle all’anatra which shows the combination works.

Choosing and prepping the duck

While you could use a small whole duck for making bigoli con ragù d’anatra, it’s probably more practical—and certainly more economical— to work with parts. Personally, I like the leg, which has juicy meat that stands up well to a long, slow simmer like the this recipe calls for. And as a bonus, you get bones you can use to make the broth. Be aware, however, that skinning and boning a leg can be a bit fussy. You”ll definitely need a good boning knife and decent skills. Because the skin and bones weigh so much, expect to get only half the weight in actual duck meat.

A breast is easier to work with, as they are usually boneless. The skin can usually be pulled off without the help of a knifed. You also get a better yield, though again the skin is bulky so expect to get maybe 75% of the weight in actual meat.

Where I live, you can buy ducks breasts in the fancier supermakets around town Legs are harder to find, but I can get them as Asian supermarkets in the area. You can also buy whole ducks, but here in the US, at least, commerically avaiable ducks tend to run 4 pounds or more. Rather too big unless you’re planning on doubling the recipe, or perhaps saving half the duck for another use.

And by the way, whatever you do, don’t throw out those duck cracklings. They won’t be enough for guests, but keep them as a little treat for the chef. Sprinkled with a little salt, they are delicious!

The broth

Though not a complete necessity some much of the flavor in this dish comes from the rich duck broth that infuses both the pasta and the ragù with its ducky aroma. A whole carcass is ideal, of course, but even a few bones will add flavor. Of course, if you don’t have bones—say you’re working with a boness breast—then home made chicken broth will do. Or even—and believe it or not, I got this from none other than the famous Gualtiero Marchesi—throw a bouillon cube into your pasta water.

Pressure Cooking

The ragù lends itself nicely to pressure cooking. After you’ve added the tomato, herbs and broth, close the pot. Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes, then let the pot release pressure naturally. Let the sauce simmer uncovered for a few minutes longer until it reaches the right consistency. Then proceed as per the main recipe.

Variations

The OG recipes for bigoli all’anatra

As mentioned at the top, the oldest recipes for bigoli all’anatra have you boil a whole duck with aromatic vegetables as if you were making a broth and use the giblets (along with the raw liver if you have it) for the sauce. In a variation you will still find recipes for, you skin and bone the boiled duck, chop up the meat and sauté it in butter, sometimes with just a sprig of fresh sage, sometimes with aromatic vegetables. Yet others have you roast a duck (or parts) then handle them in the same manner. The carcass can be used to make the broth.

In other recipes, you leave the duck whole or cut it into pieces, then braise until tender. You remove the duck, skin and bone it, then chop the meat and return it to the braising liquid.

Other variations

As for variations on this recipe for bigoli con ragù d’anatra, you can ground the duck meat if you aren’t up for the admittedly tedious task of mincing the meat with a knife. (Personally I find that mincing produces a more interesting texture and worth the effort.) In some recipes, you leave the skin on the meat on and ground them both to produce a richer mince. In that case, sauté the soffritto in butter rather than rendered duck fat.

Speaking of which, the soffritto can vary as well. Some recipes, perhaps most, call for the usual trinity of onion, carrots and celery. Some for onion only. I like this mix which omits the carrot (too sweet) and relies on a bit of celery, whose astringency works well to offset the richness of the duck and its fat.

You can also mix up the herbs if you like. Sage is perhaps the most common but some recipes also call for bay leaf, rosemary or thyme. Or a mix, of course. For an unusal twist, maybe throw in a few juniper berries.

Most recipes call for white wine, but a few will use red.

Also as mentioned, you can make the ragù in rosso (with tomatoes) or in biano (without). I like to add just a spoonful of diluted tomatoes pastas as in the recipe above for a little color, but you will find recipes where you add peeled tomatoes as well.

Making bigoli con ragù d’anatra ahead

You can make the duck broth and the ragù entirely ahead. As well as the bigoli, if you’re making them yourself. Then cook the bigoli in the broth and toss it with the reheated ragù right before you’re ready to eat.

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Bigoli con ragù d’anatra

Bigoli with Duck Ragu

Course Primo

Cuisine veneto

Keyword boiled, braised

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 400 g bigoli preferably fresh

For the duck ragù:

• 1 kg duck legs or 750g (1-/2 lb) duck breast
• 1 onion peeled and finely minced
• 1 stalk celery peeled and finely minced
• 1 Tb tomato paste optional
• white wine
• butter
• salt and pepper
• a sprig of fresh sage
• a bay leaf

For the duck broth:

• Bones from the duck legs
• 1 onion cut in half left unpeeled
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 carrot trimmed and peeled
• A sprig of two of fresh parsley
• A bay leaf
• salt

Metric – US

The post Bigoli con ragù d’anatra (Bigoli with Duck Ragu) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

But when I’m having company, or just in the mood for something more elaborate, I often turn to fruit based desserts. And here’s one that I particularly enjoy, a crostata ai frutti di bosco or Mixed Berry Tart. It comes in three delicious layers: a bottom crust of pasta frolla (shortcrust pastry) a filling of crema pasticcera (pastry cream) and a topping of fresh berries. If you know your way around pasta frolla and crema pasticcera—as any proficient Italian cook should since they are veritable workhorses of Italian dessert cookery—this crostata should come together quickly and easily enough to make on the regular. And yet it makes for such an elegant presentation, especially if you take some care to arrange the berry topping in concentric circles or some other decorative pattern, I wouldn’t hesitate to serve it for company or at an important family meal.

The recipe is also very versatile. You can top this crostata with a single type of berry or a mix of whatever berries you fancy. In fact, you make a crostata di frutta or fruit tart in much the same way. The possiblities are virtually endless.

Ingredients

Makes one 24 cm/9.5 inch crostata, enough for 4-6 slices

For the pasta frolla:

• 250g (14 oz) 00 or pastry flour
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) sugar
• 100-125 g (3-1/2 to 4 oz) softened butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp lievito per dolci or baking powder
• Water or milk, q.b.

For the crema pasticcera

• 4 egg yolks
• 100g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 40g (4 Tbs) corn starch or flour
• 250 ml (2 cups) milk
• 1 tps vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean, split open)
• Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon (optional)

For the topping:

• 400g (14 oz) mixed berries, or much as you need to top the tart
• confectioner’s (powdered) sugar (optional)

Directions

Make the pasta frolla

In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer) add the flour, sugar and baking powder. Mix well. 

Add the butter and mix again, incorporating until you have a sand-like mixture. Then add the eggs and mix to form a proper dough, adding, if need be, add a spoonful or two of milk or water.

Wrap the dough and plastic wrap (cling film) and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Make the crema pasticcera

In a standing mixer bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth and the mixture forms ‘ribbons’ as the whisk rotates.

Add the flour or cornstarch slowly, bit by bit, into the mixture until fully incorporated. The mixture should be a pale yellow and quite fluffy.

Meanwhile, heat the milk (or milk and cream) over moderate heat until hot but not boiling. You will see little bubbles just beginning to form around the edge of the pot. (If you are using a vanilla bean, add it to the milk and let it steep for a few minutes, then remove it.) Take the milk off the heat and whisk it, little by little, into the mixer bowl.

Now pour the whole mixture from the bowl into the pot (along with the vanilla extract if using) and place it over very gentle heat, whisking continuously and vigorously. After a while, it should begin to thicken. Keep stirring until you have a thick custard that pulls away from the bottom of the pot as you whisk.

Remove from the heat, stir in the grated lemon zest if using, and let the mixture cool. It will thicken further as it cools. If keeping for longer than 30 minutes or so, cover with film wrap to avoid a film forming on top.

Bake the crust

Take the dough and roll it out into a round a bit wider than the tart plate you’re using. (The dough should cover the bottoms and sides.)

Lay this round onto a well buttered 24cm (9.5 inch) tart dish, making sure to cover the bottom and sides. Trim off any excess. Puncture the bottom here and there with a prongs of a fork.

Cover the dough with a round of parchment paper, add pie weights (or just some old dried beans) on top to weigh it down.

Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 15-20 minutes, then remove the crust from the oven and lift out the parchment paper and weights/beans. Put the dish back in the oven and continue baking until the crust is cooked through and just lightly browned.

Remove from the oven and let the baked crust cool completely.

Assemble the crostata

With the help of a spatula, pour the pastry cream into the tart dish and smooth out as evenly as possible across the bottom of the crust.

Now take the berries and arrange them on top of the pastry cream, if you like in a decorative pattern or just willy-nilly. Most berries should be left whole. But, unless they’re very small, strawberries are best cut in half or even quarters, depending on their size.

If desired, dust with confectioner’s sugar, or just serve as is.

Notes on crostata ai frutti di bosco

The usual tips for making the pasta frolla and the crema pasticcera apply here, too.

Making the pasta frolla

For the pasta frolla, the important thing is not to work it too much. That would develop the gluten and produce a less delicate crust. Pasta frolla isn’t hard to make, but it can be a bit tricky to handle. It tends to be rather sticky and doesn’t hold together the way, say, a pasta dough does. So handel it with care and always flour your surfaces and rolling pin well. And work quickly. If it’s out of the fridge too long it will become too sticky to handle. If that happens, then put it back in the firdge for 10-15 then proceed.

On little trick I like to use: Roll the dough out on a floured sheet of parchment paper. This makes placing the delicate dough much easier and avoid the risk it falls apart in the process.

Lievito per dolci

The Italian baking powder, marketed as pane degli angeli (literally Bread of the Angels) and known generically in Italian as lievito per dolci, is totally optional, but it does add a lovely aroma and, of course, lift to the crust. It produces a more cake like (but still crisp) crust. You can omit it altogether, in which case the crust will have the usual rather crumbly (but delicious) short pastry texture, or use standard baking powder.

Lievito pane degli angeli is a mix of baking powder, baking soda and vanilla flavoring. Here in North America, you should be able to find it in better stocked Itailan delis or online.

Making the crema pasticcera

The custard has enough corn starch or flour so it’s not very likely to curdle. That said, it is important to whisk is more or less constantly and heat it over very low heat to avoid lumps. If you do see lumps forming, take the pan off the heat immediatley and whisk as briskly as you can. With any luck, they should disappear.

Choosing and prepping the berries

I like to use a mix of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries when making a crostata di frutti di bosco, Italian recipes also often feature ribes, or red currants. Not an easy find where I live now, but they do add a lovely bit of tartness to this tart. (Bad pun intended…) And a lovely visual flair, add them in small bunches.

You can also add strawberries, though try to find them as small as you can. (That can be a challenges these days.) And only use the ones that are deep red in color. You can keep the stems on if they’re fresh—they add a lovely touch of green—but if they’re wilted, as they sadly often are, trim them off.

Strawberries can also be rather disappointing tastewise as well. To give them some oomph, toss them with a spoonful of sugar and a squeeze of lemon and let them macerate for a few minutes. Not too long or they will begin to ‘cook’. Then drain them well in a colander and proceed with topping your crostata.

Variations

As mentioned at the top, while the crust and cream filling are more or less a fixture, you can let your imagination run wild when it comes to the topping for your crostata. Not only can you mix things up berry-wise, but if you like you can use fruits like kiwis and mandarin oranges. Or in summer peaches and plums. Really whatever’s in season and suits your fancy. Fruits are generally sectioined, sliced or cut into wedges depending on their size and shape.

When using a fruit (rather than a berry) topping it’s common (but not required) to glaze the topping. The same company that puts out pane degli angeli also produces the topica starch based gelatin powder called Tortagel for the purpose. Other options include regular gelatin or agar agar dissolved in water or, if you want some additinoal sweetness, a spoonful or two of apricot jam diluted in equal parts water and briefly simmered, then cooled. The glaze is then gingerly brushed on to the fruit. This gives the topping a lovely sheen and also prevents the cut fruit from discoloring. I wouldn’t try to glaze a topping that’s all or mostly berries however. Better to use confectioner’s sugar or just leave the berries ‘naked’. Some recipes call for a few leaves of fresh mint.

You will find recipes for crostata di frutti di bosco that switch out the crema pasticcera for another creamy filling based on mascarpone or a fruit marmelade. Some even have you top the bare crust with fruit. But crema pasticcera is by far the most common filling and, to my mind at least, the best. It provides a delightful contrast in taste and texture to the fruits or berries that other filings just can’t match.

Making a crostata ai frutti di bosco ahead

You can easily make the recipe in stages and complete it as your leisure. You can make the pasta frolla and refrigerate it until needed. (And if you have any lefover, it also freezes well.) You couuld also go as far as baking the crust.

You can make the crema pasticcera ahead and keep it in the fridge until needed. Just make sure it’s well wrapped so a film doesn’t form on top.

And finally you can make the whole crostata ahead and keep it in the fridge for eating later in the day. Best to make it the same day so the crust doesn’t get too soggy.

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Crostata ai frutti di bosco

Mixed Berry Tart

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword baked

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Rest time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

For the pasta frolla

• 250 g 00 or pastry flour
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 100-125 g butter softened and cut into cubes
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp lievito per i dolci or baking powder
• Water or milk q.b.

For the crema pasticcera

• 4 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar
• 40 g corn starch or flour
• 250 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or a vanilla bean, split open
• Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon optional

For the topping

• 400 g mixed berries or much as you need to top the tart
• confectioner's (powdered) sugar (optional)

Metric – US

Instructions

Make the pasta frolla

• In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer) add the flour, sugar and baking powder. Mix well.
• Add the butter and mix again, incorporating until you have a sand-like mixture. Then add the eggs and mix to form a proper dough, adding, if need be, add a spoonful or two of milk or water.
• Wrap the dough and plastic wrap (cling film) and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Make the crema pasticcera

• In a standing mixer bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth and the mixture forms ‘ribbons’ as the whisk rotates.
• Add the flour or cornstarch slowly, bit by bit, into the mixture until fully incorporated. The mixture should be a pale yellow and quite fluffy.
• Meanwhile, heat the milk (or milk and cream) over moderate heat until hot but not boiling. You will see little bubbles just beginning to form around the edge of the pot. (If you are using a vanilla bean, add it to the milk and let it steep for a few minutes, then remove it.) Take the milk off the heat and whisk it, little by little, into the mixer bowl.
• Now pour the whole mixture from the bowl into the pot (along with the vanilla extract if using) and place it over very gentle heat, whisking continuously and vigorously. After a while, it should begin to thicken. Keep stirring until you have a thick custard that pulls away from the bottom of the pot as you whisk.
• Remove from the heat, stir in the grated lemon zest if using, and let the mixture cool. It will thicken further as it cools. If keeping for longer than 30 minutes or so, cover with film wrap to avoid a film forming on top.

Bake the crust

• Take the dough and roll it out into a round a bit wider than the tart plate you’re using. (The dough should cover the bottoms and sides.)
• Lay this round onto a well buttered 20cm (8 inch?) tart dish, making sure to cover the bottom and sides. Trim off any excess. Puncture the bottom here and there with a prongs of a fork.
• Cover the dough with a round of parchment paper, add pie weights (or just some old dried beans) on top to weigh it down.
• Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 15-20 minutes, then remove the crust from the oven and lift out the parchment paper and weights/beans. Put the dish back in the oven and continue baking until the crust is cooked through and just lightly browned.
• Remove from the oven and let the baked crust cool completely. (Remove the parchment paper and weights/beans when they’re cool enough to handle safely.)

Assemble the crostata

• With the help of a spatula, pour the pastry cream into the tart dish and smooth out as evenly as possible across the bottom of the crust.
• Now take the berries and arrange them on top of the pastry cream, if you like in a decorative pattern or just willy-nilly. Most berries should be left whole. But, unless they’re very small, strawberries are best cut in half or even quarters, depending on their size.
• If desired, dust the berries with confectioner’s sugar, or serve as is.

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