Stuffed Roasted Peppers

Stuffed Roasted Peppers

These are before they were baked.  They disappeared in an instant before I got a picture of them out of the oven!!

I'm pulling myself away from some of the more complicated pastry or other recipes to include a really delicious vegetable course that is both simple and inexpensive.  This recipe is from the Naples area....which is probably why my father made them.   Both sides of grandparents came from the general vicinity near Naples.  The cooking in that area is noted for being pretty frugal with lots of 'bread stuffed or coated' something or other.  It stretched the portions that you could eek out of meat cutlets or vegetables and added a whole lot of heft to a meal.   I'm not sure that anyone in our family (except mom) ever thought of these foods as 'stretching a meal'.  However, with 5 kids, it definitely did.  We were stout little kids and never complained about either portions or flavor.  Every one of us preferred to eat stuffed peppers as a main course versus hot dogs and beans. 

Many Italian families made sure that every morsel of stale bread was used so there are tons of recipes that start with 'stale bread' as one of the key ingredients.   My father made a version of these stuffed baked green peppers that included either raisins or anchovies in the stuffing.  I still don't understand how anyone doesn't like the salty nuttiness of anchovies in sauces, on pizzas or in these wonderful peppers but my dad wanted to make sure everyone had a version that didn't make them gag....so raisins were the compromise.  The ones with raisins usually had a dose of pine nuts in them (but only on special occasions and only when you could buy a pound of pine nuts on sale from the Italian market).

The following recipe deviates from my dad's.  My brother Ralph swears he has the recipe but I have not yet seen it!  My dad's were densely packed whole peppers.  One pepper was a complete meal!  The peppers in this recipe are more delicate.  They are pre-roasted...and yes, this takes more time to do but the flavor takes it to another level.  It also includes prosciutto so it doesn't force me to make a decision as to whether to use anchovy or raisins (my personal preference is anchovy but I'm in the minority in an extended family that didn't grow up on these hairy, oily little nuggets of salt). Lastly, there were 3 types of cheeses used....how can this not make it exceptional!

Except for the few extra minutes to roast the peppers...this is a simple appetizer or vegetable course for an elegant meal...or a main course if you're on a budget.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
2.5 pounds of green bell peppers
6 oz. of stale Italian bread (soaked in milk and then squeezed dry).  If it's not stale....put it in the oven to dry it out a little but don't scorch it.
3 large eggs (beaten)
1 2/3 cup whole milk mozzarella cheese cut into small bits (I used fresh mozzarella)
1 1/4 Emmental cheese (or any decent swiss cheese)
1 cup prosciutto minced (this is the only expensive ingredient but you either skip it or can substitute very thinly sliced ham)
1/2 grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup basil torn in small pieces
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (use a food processor to grind up more of that stale bread
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking pan with olive oil
2. Roast the whole peppers under the broiler on a non-greased baking sheet.  When they bubble and char on one side, carefully rotate them a quarter of a turn and keep charring them until they are fully roasted on all sides.  Use tongs to put them in a paper bag or in a covered bowl and let the heat steam them for about 10 minutes or until the skin is easier to pull off and discard.   This is how they look when they are charred out of the oven.
   
   
3. Peel the skin and then cut the peppers in half.   Gently pull or cut off the stem and then use a paring knife to scrape out the seeds.   
   
4. Mix all of the other ingredients together in a bowl (except for the breadcrumbs)
   
5. Place a heaping mound of stuffing in the center of the pepper and do your best to create a stuffed 'semi-roll'.   The recipe suggests that you can create a 'roll' out of them but I know that vegetables in the US are generally not as healthy and large as some of the ones you can get in the markets in Italy.  I've seen peppers the size of my forearm and lemons that look like footballs.  I think the area around Mount Vesuvius has ashy healthy soil that boosts production....just a guess.  So...if our peppers are a little smaller, just over-stuff them and leave the stuffing exposed.  They will prop each other up in the pan and when cooked, the egg, bread and cheese will hold everything together in a cute little semi-roll.  
   
6. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned and crusty.
7. Normally, I have a 'finished product' picture at the end of these posts.  In this particular case, I made the mistake of inviting everyone to fill their plate and they were gone before I grabbed the picture...my bad.   

These were super easy, had a crunchy topping and 2 of these with a salad would have satisfied me as a full meal.  The hardest part was peeling the daggone peppers.

Bouna Mangiata!!!


 
   



 

Cheat Version- Sfogliatelle Frolle (Shortbread version)

Cheat Version- Sfogliatelle Frolle (Shortbread version)

Forgot to add the confectioners sugar for the photo but beautiful nonetheless!

I've got an entire blog post on the Sfogliatelle (July Archive: Sfogliatelle-Italian Crack) that I remember as a little girl with the ribbons of pastry that encase a wonderful ricotta filling....might need to take a morning coffee break and go find one in my freezer.  They are pure heaven.  However, I won't lie.  They take time to make because of the pastry dough ribbons.  It's one of those things that is really fun to do but you need to plan for doing it.

All is not lost!   If you want to experience the basic flavor of these little guys, you won't be disappointed with this recipe.  They have a shortbread style crust on the outside and a great ricotta filling that cooks up more like a dense cake on the inside.  These are actually pretty easy to make and have all the same great ingredients including my new-found friend..LARD!

These moon shaped pastry/cookies were a big hit with family last week so they'll be on the 'cookie tray' for my niece's wedding in April.

Cookie Trays!!!  Historically, the bride's Italian aunties would make trays of cookies for wedding celebrations. I suspect that the reason they aren't made by aunts of the groom is because the bride's aunts would think it was some kind of competition and then all hell would break loose resulting in a shortage of flour, sugar and lard throughout the region.

At my own wedding in 1972, the most wonderful baker in our family was my dad's sister, Aunt Eva.  I couldn't believe the tonnage of cookies she waltzed into the house on the day after the wedding when my parents hosted a get-together for family and friends.  Granted, there were almost 150 people who stopped by but she probably had 1000 cookies (and 20 different varieties) on those trays.  No one left without sampling almost all of the different cookies so they actually disappeared.   She set the bar pretty high for the next generation of aunties!

In Italy, wedding venues might be more receptive to a tradition that allows someone to bring these platters of cookies to a reception.  However, in the US, unless something comes out of a professional/certified kitchen, the ability to bring your own cookies into most venues is largely frowned upon.  This complicates the ability for Italian 'Aunties' to drop a 100 pounds of cookies on a table for the bride. Consequently, those of us who want to uphold tradition need to first make sure that there's going to be an 'after-party' the next day.  Otherwise, the bride's parents will need to buy a freezer to store those cookies for the year it takes to eat them. 

I've only made cookies for my niece Lauren's wedding (5-7 years ago?).  This was because my brother, Mike, hosted about 150 at his house for an Italian style BBQ the next day.  I made a bold decision to try replicate what Aunt Eva had done for me as a young bride.  Recalling the mountain of cookies that she had created, I went to work a few months in advance and filled up the extra freezer I had with every variety of Italian cookie I could remember my aunt making.  This took a bit of trial and error to get recipes right but when I was done, I had made 15-20 different types cookies.  Each batch was between 3-6 dozen.  I never counted precisely but I'm sure it was respectably close to the 1000 cookie limit.

Every time I slid a new bag of cookies into my immense freezer, I would step back to admire the accumulation...not realizing that transporting them was going to be a hell of a task.

Original plan was to drive to Indiana from Rochester but then we decided to fly.  How in the heck do you transport 1000 delicate cookies on a plane?  The decision was made to check luggage with clothing.  Who cares if we'd lose wedding attire...but, god forbid the cookies don't make it!  Each of us carried duffels filled with plastic bags of cookies as carry-ons.   At that time, I was a twice weekly business traveler in Rochester and knew all of the TSA guards by name.  Nothing I was taking on-board was illegal but they got a huge chuckle out of me being a secret cookie monster when I was normally lugging my PC and briefcase.  Before I left the TSA area, I unloaded a few dozen cookies to my favorite TSA guards.  Unlikely that he'll ever read this but a big shout out to 'Levi', my all time favorite TSA staff member.  He and I bonded over who wore the most exotic eyeglasses.  We each had a drawer filled with strange colors and shapes.  He might have edged me out when he came to work wearing extra thick white huge frames.  They would have made Elton John proud.

The rest of the cookies made it to Indiana (minus a few we snacked on en-route but who was going to miss a dozen when you had almost 1000).   I need to mention that cookies are heavy....very heavy.  I couldn't wait to unload them on my brother.  When we got to his house and began to unpack, he was noticeably hurt by the fact that I had forgotten that he was deathly allergic to hazelnuts and other nuts (except almonds).  Italian cookies either have some kind of fruit or nut in almost all of them so I had to carefully steer him towards the only safe cookie....lemon anginetti.  Next April, when his second daughter and my lovely niece, Jenna, gets married, I will be bringing another batch of Italian cookies to his new house for one of his epic after parties.  He also has a lot more freezer space so I don't have to worry about over-baking and I don't have to transport them on a plane.....so overbaking will just be a happy accident.  This time, I'll remember to substitute almonds for hazelnuts so his wife won't have to run for the epi-pen again.

To my children, nieces and nephews.....this recipe isn't hard at all and doesn't require special equipment...or any equipment except your hands....so give it a try.  You can buy some of the ingredients that I choose to make...like the candied orange peel or whole milk ricotta.  You can get orange peel on your Prime account for $8 a pound so there really aren't any excuses.  But, if you want to save money, you can make the orange peel by just eating a few oranges and boiling the peel in sugar (follow the recipe in the July archive for 'Sfogliatelle-Italian Crack' ).  There's also a homemade ricotta recipe that's also fool-proof but the grocery store version can be used too.

Have fun with these.  They are a great pastry to bake, freeze and enjoy whenever you want something special!!!

Ingredients:

Pastry:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 oz. lard (if you don't have a scale, this is about 6 tablespoons of lard..but get yourself a cheap weight scale.  It's such a useful tool in the kitchen)
• 3 Tbs water
• 1 large egg yolk, for brushing the top of the pastry when finished

Filling:

• 1 cup semolina flour (you can find this in most grocery stores near the flour or special nutrition section).....I like Caputo but you need to order this on-line in most locations.
• 1 cup whole milk ricotta (you can make this with 8 cups of whole milk and a thermometer...but most rational people just buy it)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup chopped citron or citrus peel (I made my own candied orange and lemon peel but you can order on-line if you can't find it)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 drops Cinnamon Oil (I ordered mine on-line since I use it a lot these days with Italian pastries)
• Salt (just a dash....about 1/8th teaspoon)

Confectioners sugar for sprinkling on top when baked

Instructions:
This recipe doesn't make use of a mixer.  Those wonderful nonna bakers in Italy like to get their hands into their food.  I'm getting to like it since it doesn't require nearly as much cleaning up bowls and mixer equipment.  However, I don't see why you couldn't use your mixer to make both the pastry dough and the filling.  Both are the consistency of cookie doughs so whatever works for you should be fine.  I'll demonstrate the 'hand mixing' in the attached.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  For the record, the cookbook had the temp at 250 degrees for 9 minutes! This is one of the reasons I'm making a record for all of these recipes.  Many of them require a high degree of interpretation or good judgment...:).    Use parchment paper on your cookie sheet.  Parchment makes these easy to assemble and bake on the same sheet.  Plus, they never stick and then you throw out the parchment...easy cleanup!!
2. Pour flour into a mixing bowl.  Create a well.
   
3. Add sugar, lard and water to the well and mix this up with your fingers gradually bringing in the flour as you 'squish' the lard between your fingers.  Regarding lard, it's easy to still find in grocery stores.  I found mine in the Mexican food section.  Thank goodness (or foodness) that some Latino cooks still use lard for frying tortillas.  Lard really enhances the flavor of these pastries so I encourage you to try it.  If it goes against your diet or principles to use lard, I think solid crisco might be the only decent alternative because it has the same type of texture.....but you'll sacrifice flavor.  Once you get it to the point where most of the ingredients are basically incorporated, you can start to knead it lightly until you've got a smooth ball of 'cookie like' dough.  This is where it's probably just fine to use a mixer, as you would with any type of cookie dough.    This isn't a springy pasta dough so when you put your finger into the middle of it, it won't spring back.    
   
   
   
   
4. Wrap the dough in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour or overnight.  The dough won't harden because it contains lard (or crisco if that's what you choose to use) but it makes it a little more stable when you start to form small cookie discs.  Using butter instead of lard or crisco would probably make it a little harder to work with.   
5. Make the filling by chopping the citrus peel and then mixing all of the filling ingredients in a bowl.  Don't forget the salt..... just that little dash kicks up the flavor.  I tried mixing with a spoon but this is where I had to get my hands dirty again.  So this is probably another step you can use your mixer if you want.   I just re-purposed my dough bowl and saved the time of cleaning yet another bowl!   Because this filling contains semolina flour, it's more like a cookie dough itself.   As I've mentioned....making your own citrus peel is easy.  You can find the recipe in the July archives for my blog on the original ribbon pastry 'Sfogliatelle-Italian Crack'. 
   
   
   
   
6. Take the dough out of the fridge, divide it into 12 pieces.  Dip each piece in a little bit of flour to make it easy to mold into a flat oval.  Don't use a rolling pin.   Just pat these little pieces into a 3 by 4 inch oval and you're ready to fill.
   
   
   
   
7. Fill each oval with about 1/4 cup of the filling, fold the dough into a moon shape.  They will feel overstuffed and you might have tears or breaks in the dough but the filling won't ooze out because it's a dense filling with flour and egg.  If you have a pastry trimmer, clean up the edges or just use a knife.  Heck...you really don't have to clean up the edges if you don't want to but they look a little neater.
   
   
   
   
8. Brush the tops of the pastries with the egg yolk, bake for 25-30 minutes in the center rack of your oven.  When they are golden brown on the bottom and top, they are done.
9. In spite of the fact that I stuffed these little moon pies to the breaking point, I still had about 2 cups of leftover filling.  I sprayed a little souffle cup and filled it up.  You can probably use cupcake tins as well.  I baked in the oven about 45-50 minutes.  These were like dense cupcakes when I turned them out.  So...if you like this option vs. the pastry option, you can skip that pastry part and go straight to cooking up the ricotta filling....but that pastry adds a really nice flavor and texture so give it a shot.
10. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar (OK, I forgot this step when I took the photo).  These freeze easily so you just defrost and serve at room temp.  
    

Give these pastries a shot.  They really are easy.   The hardest part is filling and folding them because you start to feel like you're trying to stuff way too much into the pastry.  It doesn't matter if the dough breaks a little or the filling comes out the sides.  They bake up without any problem.

Enjoy!

Buona Mangiata

   

Spinach Tart with Pasta Dough Crust

Spinach Tart with Pasta Dough Crust

I won't go into the reason that spinach pies are so special for our family.  I've written about this in another 'Rustic Spinach Pie' blog post.  

However, the variations on these pies are limitless.....and it seems that each Mediterranean and/or Middle Eastern country has their own version.  I guess the reason for this is that spinach is abundant in these climates.  Our peasant ancestors, or anyone with a crop of spinach a hundred or more years ago, figured out that it's a great stuffing for pasta, pies, meats, etc.  Since spinach is prolific, each family probably concocted recipes to get a good dose of the vegetable into family meals each day.  Spinach pies are one of the fan favorites that survived.  

Today, bulk spinach purchases from Costco or big supermarkets finds its way into smoothies.  A few months ago, I might have looked at the 2 pound bag of baby spinach and considered the many smoothie options I could create for the week.  It's a simple, fast way to consume healthy veggies.  However, this is where the traditions start to fade.  When you can whip up a smoothie in 2 minutes, you might find that it's a good excuse to avoid more time consuming ways to incorporate a few pounds of greens into other tasty options.   I've thrown in the towel on spinach smoothies for a while.  I'm preferring to test spinach pie recipes.  My previous 'Rustic Spinach Pie' blog post starts with a more complicated puff pastry and the filling is a little more complex as well.  The recipe that follows is an easier, faster version for a really tasty spinach pie.  It starts with a pasta dough that you roll in your pasta maker.  You then fill it with a very basic filling of spinach, onions, grated cheese....and then bake it.   It's still a little time consuming to make the pasta dough but if you're proficient at making this dough (and it takes only a few times working with pasta dough to get pretty proficient), you can whip it up in under an hour, including a 30 minute pasta resting period.  It's only a little more difficult than making a box cake if you have the right equipment.  I have the KitchenAid pasta attachment and wouldn't do it any other way (and trust me, I'm not paid for saying that).  This thing just pushes out pasta with the push of a button and a little guidance through the roller.  I also have a manual pasta maker.  It's good for rolling super thin sheets (for my Sfogliatelle blog recipe post)..... but takes more muscle and time.  My manual machine doesn't seem to like to stay put.  I've clamped it down on counters and came close to nailing it down to a board.  However, since I've purchased the KitchenAid, I've given up on being hostile to my manual machine. It serves a limited purpose so I snarl at it but I keep it.    

The recipe that follows is compliments of a 900 page Italian cookbook (La Cucina) that I recently acquired to go with my other massive non-translated Italian cookbook.  La Cucina has been translated to English so it saves one of the steps in the process.  Many recipes are similar but I'm now finding myself comparing the two books for similarities.  La Cucina is hailed as the most complete and authentic Italian cookbook that was assembled by the Italian Academy of Cuisine.  About 60 years ago, the Italian Academy of Cuisine's thousands of members invaded the Italian countryside gathering regional recipes from the grandmas and local chefs so that the recipes would be preserved for future generations.  

A forewarning to anyone who wants to buy this book (available on Amazon).  It's not for beginner cooks.  Many of the 2000 recipes leave something to the imagination...and there are no photos for any of the recipes.  However, if you've cooked Italian food for a while and if you understand some of the nuances that you might have seen your aunts, uncles, grandmothers incorporate into the cooking, you can follow these recipes.  So, I'm cooking my way through two Italian cookbooks now (one translated and the other not).  The only big challenge is narrowing down the selection for the week.   In this new book, because it has no pictures, I have no idea how something is 'supposed' to look when it's done.  However, part of the experiment is to do my best to interpret old recipes.   If they taste good, I blog about it and post with photos for all the other cooks who might want a reference to see how it might look when it's done!

I've already cooked a few things from this new book....and they are remarkably good.  I'll take pictures next time so that they are blog worthy.  The thing I've noticed is that some of the cooking that my parents and aunts/uncles did seems modernized from some of these recipes.   In one generation, you can see that recipes are adapted.   Going back to the roots of some of these recipes is a whole new experience.  For example, I love stuffed peppers.  My dad, whose family is from Naples area, would take a pepper, cut off the top, stuff it with a bread stuffing and then bake them in a covered water bath.   This softened the peppers and cooked the stuffing.  They were delicious.   This recipe book has a version from Naples that starts with fire roasting the peppers, skinning them and then stuffing them.  The fire roasting takes a lot more time because you have to peel these guys after roasting them.   However, since the peppers are already cooked, you can avoid the water bath and just cook everything for a short period under direct heat in the oven where it gets that crunchy stuffing top hat.  Either way, they are delicious but the flavors of the fire roasted peppers are definitely worth the extra effort once in a while.  

These recipes aren't intended for everyday cooking.  We all recognize that the days where meal prep was an all day event over wood fired stoves are gone.  Still.....every once in a while, when you have a few hours of down time, it's nice to focus on something special.  These recipes are intended to be those special additions to meals...even when the ingredients are super simple.  

Ingredients (for a tart that is about 5 inches wide and 15 inches long)

Pasta Dough:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of water

2 Tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of lard...or just use a little more olive oil

pinch of salt (about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon)

Filling:

2-3 pounds of spinach or swiss chard (I used baby spinach)

4 Tbs of unsalted butter

2 Tbs of lard (or more butter if you don't want use lard)

1 medium onion diced

1 garlic clove minced

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbs olive oil

2 oz of diced pancetta

Make the Pasta:

1. Put the flour in a bowl, create a well and add the water, olive oil, lard and pinch of salt to the center of the well.  Start to stir the wet mixture with a fork and gradually mix in the flour from the sides. 
   
    
2. Time to get your hands into it.  When you've got most of the flour dampened, you can just go at it with your hands.  Start to knead the mixture by pushing your palm into the dough, turning it and folding it over. You'll be picking up the stray flour as you start this process.  You only want to add enough of the flour until you can stick your index finger into the dough and it doesn't stick when you pull it out.  
3. Once you've add most of the flour and your finger isn't pulling anything out when you do the poke test, you can throw the remainder flour away.....(there might be a tablespoon or two left but shouldn't be more than that.   You now continue to knead it for 10 minutes (it really is best to go for the full 10 minutes so don't cheat on this).
   
     
4. Wrap the dough in plastic and set it aside (not refrigerated) for 30 minutes to let it rest.  

Make the Filling:

1. Put spinach in a large pot with about 1 cup of water and cover.  Steam it until it's wilted (don't overcook).  Some of the leaves might still look a little raw but if you turn off the heat when most of them have wilted, the rest will wilt.  You don't want mushy spinach.  Drain it and when it's cool enough to handle, squeeze it dry and put between paper towels to get more moisture out of it.  
2. Chop the spinach, onions, garlic
   
3. Melt butter and lard in a large pan, cook diced onions until soft and then add the chopped spinach and garlic.  Cook for another 5 minutes and then let it cool.  
4. Mixed the cooled spinach mixture with the olive oil, grated cheese and salt/pepper to taste

Assemble the Tart:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Unwrap the dough, cut it in half and run the first piece of  dough through a pasta machine at the widest level #1.  Fold it in half and run it through again.  Refold and do this one more time for a total of 3 times.
3. Run the dough (without folding it) through levels #2, #3, #4 and #5 only once.   The sheet should be a uniform width when you remove it.  It will be the width of the pasta machine.  
4. Lay the dough out on a parchment covered cookie sheet and spoon the spinach filling on the top leaving about 1 inch on each side of the pasta sheet.  
5. Roll the second piece of dough the same way as you did the first piece and lay it over the top of the spinach.  Press the edges to seal, cut off the excess dough with a pasta crimping tool or knife.  Sprinkle the uncooked diced pancetta on top of the tart.   
   
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes until it's nicely browned.  Cut and serve warm.
   
7. You can make individual tarts instead of one long tart by cutting the pasta sheets into squares or circles and then filling and  covering with a second piece of pasta dough.  They can be frozen at this point and then thawed in the refrigerator for a few hours before cooking.  

The pasta dough gives this tart dough a cracker like texture.  It's not only delicious but really easy to handle...especially if they are individual tarts.  They don't get soggy like some bread or pie crust pastries.  I actually cooked some of the excess pieces of dough that I had trimmed off the tart.  I sprinkled them with a a little salt and pepper.  They took less time to cook (maybe 25 minutes) and were gobbled up in seconds.  The dough is really versatile.  You can cut it into strips, twist and make yummy breadsticks or any number of interesting crisp crackers.  I'll be experimenting with this dough.  I'm finding so many great reasons to use my pasta machine!!

Enjoy this wonderful recipe.  I'm making it for the second time in less than a week because it was that good and pretty simple......bring on those 2 pound bags of spinach!

Buona Mangiata!

Hard Torrone- Testa Dura (Hard Head) to compliment Hard Torrone

Hard Torrone- Testa Dura (hard head) to compliment Hard Torrone!!

If you've read my post on the Torrone Tart, you already know that I've tried to make Torrone Candy in the past.  In one case, I used careful 'Bain Marie' slow boiling methods and wanted to shoot myself because nothing ever got to the right temp.  This yielded a tasty lava flow that never set up.  In another attempt, everything required hand-mixing for 2 hours...you need friends for this...and wine.  It didn't work because I got impatient and gave up at about 1 hour so I had another sticky gooey mess on my hands.

I had sworn off making this candy permanently....never ever again...and would have been happy with that decision until recently.    After making that Torrone Tart cake in my blog (which is awesomely good), I found myself really not wanting to concede defeat on the candy.  I wanted a hard piece of Torrone and it's not something you just pick up at the corner store in Nashville.  Although I could order it on Amazon, the good stuff from Italy costs about $25 for less than a pound and there was no guarantee that it would be hard...just that soft smushy version.  Sometimes, if I convince myself that I don't want to spend the money on something that isn't good for me, I can avoid it.  Unfortunately, more often than not, I explore ways to make the same thing for a fraction the price.  This eliminates one barrier and then any will power to avoid sweets for diet purposes disintegrates.  It's a curse and a blessing to be Italian.  If you like to cook and also like to eat, you need to somehow equalize the calories going in with the calories going out.  Plus, you need to at least pretend that you're not consuming the wrong kinds of calories all the time.  I prefer to think I have enough salad days to balance my robust cooking days.  But even if I eat like a rabbit all week, I still need to exercise these days.  So....now I just swim more laps and hit the yoga mat for a little longer each day so that I can continue to experiment with wonderful recipes that are disappearing from traditions.

My dad often told me that I was one of the most stubborn people he ever knew......but he also realized that I mimicked him so he always said it with a smile on his face and usually prefaced it with "Testa dura".....or 'hard head' in English.  I don't think I ever saw him give up on any task.  He could fix just about anything and was a master craftsman in the tile, terrazzo and marble trade.  His version of success could sometimes be comical.  When it came to fixing things like toys, which would get busted up regularly with 5 kids, he would eventually get them to work but they wouldn't be pretty.  My brother still has a mechanical wind up toy that is put together with black electrician's tape and odds and ends in my dad's workshop.  It was so ugly, that my brother kept it.  He also fixed a favorite stuffed animal monkey that was leaking stuffing out of the side of his head after losing an ear in a tug of war.   Dad got white medical tape and wrapped the monkey's head like a wounded warrior.  His perfectionism for some things was tempered with a good dose of  being practical for others.  He knew that those toys, or others, would be back on his workbench routinely so once he found a temporary solution, it was good enough. 

With stubbornness as a backdrop to this story, I decided to prowl in my pantry to see if I had what it would take to try making Torrone again.  I had honey.  It was far from good quality...which really makes a difference according to the pros.  A nice mild light colored clover honey would be much better.  I had a relatively cheap non-clover version from Costco that was very dark.  They sell them as a 3 pack in those plastic bear bottles.  It's good enough for adding to salad dressings or for a few tablespoons here and there but not something that you find yourself going to for a honey fix....and certainly inferior in a candy that features honey.  Nevertheless, I justified using it on this project to see if I could get the technique correct.  I also had the edible paper.  You buy these papers in 100 sheet bulk so I had about 90 sheets left and was surprised that I had only used 10 sheets until I realized how much candy you can produce with 10 sheets.  Fortunately, potato paper doesn't go bad and was just as dry as it was when I packed it away.   I always have almonds, at least 3-5 pounds in my freezer.  Once I confirmed I had the ingredients, I needed to see if I could actually find a recipe. I searched and researched methods and ingredients.  Almost every single practical home recipe is for a soft version...on the verge of what I would call a flop.  Other versions that claimed to get hard had no honey...in a honey nougat candy!  The tried and true Italian commercial versions required professional kitchens and offered no guidance on the quantities for the recipe.  Like a good detective, I just kept looking into details and ultimately hit on a video that was produced in a large commercial kitchen.  The recipe made 70 pounds of Torrone at a time.  It looked promising so I did some math and combined a few techniques to see if I could get this candy to cooperate in a home kitchen.   I took the recipe down to a more realistic 7 pounds of product.  In the end, 7 pounds fills up an 11 x 14 pan so it's not a completely decadent amount of candy by my standards.  It's just concrete level heavy so a small volume weighs a lot.  I settled on 7 pounds and figured I could definitely hold some of it for Christmas.....if it lasted that long. 

Here's the conclusion on the end product:
I'm in Torrone heaven.   I'm not going to lie, the honey should have been higher quality but I made the decision to experiment with a cheaper version so it has a stronger flavor....and it's darker.  Using higher quality honey will definitely make it taste milder but I'm not particularly opposed to using that honey bear honey again.   I also had to really fiddle around with pans as I was prepping the honey.  This was a goof on my part that was due to the fact that I had forgotten how candy 'swells' when it boils.  Those bubbles of sugar don't evaporate.  A cup of liquid can produce a 5 quart mass of bubbles.  As a result, I started and stopped the boiling process more often than necessary to keep moving the liquid to larger pans...what a mess that was.  This might have also contributed to a slightly darker taste and color since it took longer to reach the desired temperature.  In spite of that, this candy is doggone good.  It's hard...You need a sturdy knife and potentially a hammer to break it up.  I didn't go to the full 'hard crack' stage for candy making.  I was somewhere between soft crack and hard crack. 

I guessed on the quantities I used for the Vanilla, Lemon and Almond extracts because there wasn't any real guidance on this.  I didn't factor in that I was adding extracts to REALLY HOT nougat.  I think that contributes to diluting the flavor by burning it off quickly.  It was so subtle in the final candy that I tripled the amount when I wrote out the recipe in this blog to remind me to add more extract in the future.  The candy can handle more flavor...but it was still good with very subtle flavor.  Maybe more lemon will balance the darker honey....guessing.

I'm really proud of this torrone recipe.... because I don't have much candy making experience.  You don't have to fuss with bain maries and you can just watch a thermometer or a timer.  It's that easy.  Having the advantage of a KitchenAid, eliminated the need for a squad of kitchen helpers and avoided elbow and shoulder injuries.  When you can adapt a recipe with a modern tool...go for it!

Here's the adapted recipe....hope it works for you! 

Ingredients
2 lbs (4 cups sugar)
2 lbs (3 cups honey)
6.5 Tablespoons of egg white (this was 3 egg whites from 'large' eggs)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of lemon or orange extract
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
3 lbs (12 cups)   toasted almonds with skins (toast in oven until fragrant...10 minutes at 350)
Edible Rice paper or Edible Potato paper (you can easily find on Amazon)

1. Prepare an 11x14 inch pan (I used a large roasting pan) by spraying it with a non-stick spray and then laying down a layer of parchment paper on the bottom and sides.  The non-stick spray will help hold it in place. Put a layer of edible potato or rice paper on top of this and cut some smaller pieces to line the sides.  You can overlap pieces and then snip off the excess later when you pull it out. The sides won't stay in place until you actually pour in the nougat and put in the side pieces as you spread it out to the edge but have them cut to size and ready to do this.
   
2. Mix 1 cup sugar with  5 tablespoons of egg whites (hold back about 1.5 tablespoons to add later) in a automatic mixer with a whisk attachment on medium speed.  Continue mixing while you prepare honey mixture on the stove.
3. Mix honey and the remaining cup of sugar in a pan.  Get a heavy bottomed soup pan ....a much bigger pan than you think you need.  I started with a small saucepan and had to clumsily pour this mixture into consecutively larger pans until it wouldn't threaten to boil over.  Here was the mess I ended up with so I wanted to pass it along to other unsuspecting newcomers to candy making.  Boiled honey and sugar expands considerably.   Lesson learned. 
   
    
4. It's good to have a candy thermometer for this but I can also attest that once this stuff starts to boil (anywhere from 5-15 minutes depending on your stove and pan), it takes another 4 minutes of boiling to reach the 290 degree temp (which isn't a totally hard torrone but it has a nice bite between soft crack and hard crack candy stage).  You'll know when to start the 4 minute countdown on the  'boiling' because your mixture will start to expand with lots of frothy candy bubbles.  Once this rapid expansion boiling starts, it should take 4 minutes to get to 290 degrees.     I stirred it often before it boiled and frequently during the next 4 minute period (for no other reason than I felt like it).  
   
   
   
   
5. I poured the honey mixture slowly and carefully into the egg white mixture with the whisk attachment so it didn't splatter.   Also add the extracts at this point.  Mix on med to med high speed for 35 minutes.  After 35 minutes, add the remaining egg white (about 1.5 tablespoons and mix for another 50 minutes.   I put a cold ice pack on the top of my mixer because I had been running it non-stop for a long time.  Not sure it helps but I felt better that I was pampering it.  The KitchenAid did power through everything and doesn't seem to mind hours of non-stop use.
   
    
6. With about 10 minutes remaining of mixing time, I put my almonds in a 350 degree oven for the last 10 minutes so that they would finish roasting and still be hot when I mixed them into the nougat.  This is important because that nougat starts to set up fast after you take it off the stove so the hot nuts help to keep it from turning hard. 
7. If your mixer bowl is extra large, you might be able to just mix the nuts into this bowl.  I had to pour the nougat mixture into another larger mixing bowl and then mix the nuts before putting it into the prepared pan. 
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  It will be really thick.  Push down on the mixture to spread evenly in the pan....put those side pieces of wafer paper in place before you push the nougat to the edges.  That side paper prevents it from adhering to the parchment paper (which might be tough to get off and it's not edible).  Push on the top of the nougat pretty hard to get it even.  Put more potato or rice wafer paper on top and press down again until you get a decent seal on top.  Now it's the waiting game to harden.  
   
9. Let the nougat set up for at least a few hours and then remove from the pan.  Discard any parchment paper but leave the edible papers in place. Cut the nougat into 2 inch wide strips.  This will take some persistent pushing with a knife...aided by a mallet if necessary.  The picture below shows the poundage produced.   It made about 14 bars that were 6 ounces each Unfortunately, the color of the picture below has some kind of beige thing going on.   It's a flaw in the photo (or, more likely, the photographer).  It's delicious and not too difficult to get the results if you want to make great candy gifts.  I wrapped each bar up in parchment paper and tied with butcher string.   I'm probably fooling myself into thinking that wrapping these up would put a barrier between me and Torrone.  I can untie a string pretty fast.  Make these candy gifts if you want to kill a few hours on a rainy day.  Your friends and family will love you for it.
   

Final footnote....as I was messing around with this recipe, my sister and I were on the phone.  She mentioned an Italian cookbook called 'La Cucina'.  It's even larger than my my Scuola di Cucina (different authors)....but it's in English!  I immediately ordered this 900 page encyclopedia of regional Italian favorites.  The claim on this book is that you should know how to cook.  There are no photos and the recipes probably leave out a few fundamentals (very similar to my experience in translating my beloved Scuola di Cucina).  However, it might help to have both of these books when I'm stuck on techniques.  The book arrived today and it has 2 versions of Torrone from two different regions. Both require stove top stirring for 2 hours.   While this manual method might preserve the longevity of my KitchenAid, I'm not sure I'm ready to stand over a hot stove for 2 hours.  Time will tell.  As my dad said, I have a Testa Dura (hard head) and want to prove that I can make it both ways! 

Last comment...to my cousin Al....I have 6 pounds of this stuff waiting for you...:) 

Buona Mangiata!

.

Torrone Tart

Torrone Tart

Nutty Fruity Torrone Tart!

Italian Torrone is a nougat candy made out of honey, sugar and egg whites that can be shrouded in either chocolate or delicate white wafer.  Usually there are nuts as well as a citrus flavor mixed into the nougat.  There's a soft chewy version and then there's another version that splinters into sweet little shards when you bite into it.
I'm a fan of the hard version but will take any version when I can get it.
Here's a picture of the confection below.   But this IS NOT what I'm making.  I'm making the tart shown above by translating a recipe from my Italian language recipe book.  The tart is not a candy confection but it has many similar ingredients and is appropriately named....'Torrone Tart'.   I'm hoping it will eliminate the need for me to attempt to make the candy version ever again. 

This is the candy version that is popular all over Italy

Before I get into the results of this recipe, I'll go on record that my brother Ralph and I are the only ones in our family who have actually tried to make Torrone.  Neither of us succeeded with our one or two attempts and we both swore off ever attempting to make it again.  It's not a cheap experiment when you factor in the cost of a lot of nuts and honey.  I've seen it made in Italy and it was a serious commitment of time to heat the honey/egg white mixture to a consistency that works.  There were cauldrons the size of small Italian cars that were tended by the candy makers for 11 hours....yes, 11 hours...to get the right temperature. This meant constant stirring over heat to bring it to the right temperature.  Watching it being made somehow gave me the stupid notion that it was something I could handle without an army of volunteers to stir and watch the pot.  You know what they say...."a watched pot never boils"....aint that the truth!  I really didn't have any intention of stirring for 11 hours but I found a few recipes that implied that the harder version could be accomplished within 90 minutes.  You know that other saying...."if it sounds too good to be true...it is".  I personally gave up after 90 minutes because the temperature just wouldn't budge.  I was hoping it might have just been a flaw in my thermometer but it wasn't.  I've read where some people 'accidentally' get a harder version when they wanted a softer version while the hard version eludes those of us who really really want it.
In spite of all this, the final product was still tasty but it was like free flowing lava that just didn't set up.  I gave up on my idea of wrapping up bars of candy to give to my friends at Christmas and resorted to making salted caramels...which are awesomely good but not exactly an Italian recipe.  I might still sneak those caramels into this blog somewhere because I like them so much.  Not to be wasteful, I put the tray of Torrone lava in the freezer and then cut it into pieces to be stored in a frozen state for frequent sweet tooth attacks.   I also churned it into ice-cream and snuck it into anything that seemed like it could handle extra nougat sweetness.  I declared victory when I was down to my final 1 inch piece that I shoved into my mouth.   Ultimately, I missed that lava stuff when it was gone....sigh. 

So, when I saw this 'Torrone Tart', it got my attention.  There is a  pastry that lines the springform pan.....like a lemony shortbread cookie.  The inside of the tart is filled with a creamy white meringue mixture that resembles what soft Torrone looks like after you cook it for 11 hours but before it hardens...oozy goodness.   After it's baked, there is a 1 inch hardened meringue top that covers a softer darker nougat fruity filling inside.

The taste test was pretty interesting.  My brother gave it a 10 out of 10.  He thought it tasted exactly like Torrone.  He used to actually import and sell Italian Torrone as part of his gourmet product website so I consider his opinion to be somewhat expert.  Having said that,  I personaly had a hard time really declaring it to be identical in taste but it was largely because of the texture (not my hard crackly Torrone).    It's something we decided will be an addition to the Christmas table.   One other thing to note is that this recipe, like others in the beast of a book I'm translating, suggested it would feed 4-6.  It will feed 12 at a minimum!   What you don't eat, you can easily freeze....yet another opportunity to savor something resembling Torrone for a longer period of time.    The recipe itself is pretty simple if you don't count the chopping time for the almonds, candied citrus and chocolate.  You can probably use any crust that you're comfortable using but I recommend that you sneak grated lemon rind into the pastry to heighten the Torrone experience. 

Before I share the recipe, I'm going to go on record as saying that this recipe was more confusing to translate than some of the others.  A few of the ingredients failed to make it into the instructions (small 'walnut sized' piece of butter and a 'little bit of' flour).  I used my best judgement and assumed that these ingredients were used to prep the pan before baking.  It also had a baking instruction that called for baking for 40 minutes and then 'leaving it to dry' but it doesn't instruct you as to whether you leave it in the oven or on the counter.  I split the difference and turned off the oven after 40 minutes, cracked the door for 2-3 minutes to let a lot of the heat escape and then closed it again and left the tart in the oven for about another hour.  I wouldn't change anything about this process since the texture of the tart was really perfect. 

I knew it was inevitable that I would get at least one of these recipes where the instructions were left to the imagination, Italian tradition or common sense vs. being well written down.   I guess that's one of the reasons I'm trying to experiment so that they can be written down with more accuracy..

Final conclusion, it really was a success as a good dessert that feeds a lot of people.  It was sweet and delicious.  A small piece is a great accompaniment to a cup of coffee.  I wouldn't declare it off limits as a morning sweet...... if you're that kinda person.  It tasted a little like a chocolate covered version of Torrone.....but, in the end it wasn't Torrone and only made me want to attempt to make that daggone honey candy again.  I just checked my freezer and there's enough room to store another failed attempt if required.  I might have to give it a shot so stay tuned.  I'm assuming that the author of the Italian recipe book might have recognized that most people don't have the talent or the time to make Torrone so she intentionally left it out.  That makes the challenge much more interesting!

Back to this recipe.....there are two parts...the short crust pastry and then the meringue cream filling.

Ingredients (for 6 servings....ha ha ha)

Short Pastry Dough for a 9 inch spring-form pan:

500 g  (3 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon) flour
220 g (1 cup) sugar
Pinch of salt (about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon)
200 g (14 1/2 tablespoons) butter
Grated rind of one lemon
145 g (3 large) eggs plus 2 tablespoons of ice cold water

Filling:
6 egg whites
300 g caster sugar (I'll share a tip on how to make this in the instructions below)
110 g chopped citron or candied citrus (recipe is in my blog for Sfogliatelle but you can buy citron)
110 g chopped dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa)
1 'Noce' of butter (this actually translates to 1 piece of butter the size of a walnut)
Little bit of flour (hmmmm...not sure what this means but assume a tablespoon)

Making the Pastry Dough:

1. Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a large pan or in a food processor. Add cold butter that has been cut into 1/2 inch pieces.   I opted to use a large metal pan to mix the ingredients so that I could take easier pictures of the process and because I actually like the texture of pastry dough when I can control the butter texture more easily.  A food processor is fine to use for this particular pastry because it's more like a shortbread cookie.  It's a very simple pastry recipe so use your best technique to incorporate butter and flour or just use another slightly sweet pastry if you have one you like.    
   
2. I used a pastry cutter to mix the flour and butter.  You want to get it to where the mixture resembles a very course texture with some larger pea sized pieces of butter that are still obvious.
   
3. Mix the eggs, lemon rind and water in a bowl with a fork
4. If you are using a pan, create a well in your flour and pour in the egg mixture.  Start to incorporate with a spoon.  You will then need to get your hands involved and combine everything until most of the dry parts are incorporated and you can knead it a little.   If you use a food processor, add the egg mixture and pulse until the mixture barely comes together.  You don't want a tennis ball of dough running around in your food processor or you'll end up with a cardboard texture to your crust.  You really just want the mixture to be able to come together when you pour it all out on a pastry board and then knead it with your hands.  You'll want the final product of this step to look like the third picture below.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. OK....here's a fancy word you can tuck into your conversation with gourmet friends....FRAISAGE.  This is the process of smearing the last bits of  butter  chunks that are left in the kneaded pastry so that it results in longer 'shards' of butter that help keep the pastry tender.   You just pull off a handful sized piece of the semi-kneaded dough and use the palm of your hand to 'smear' it on your counter.  You gather that up and do another piece and keep on adding each 'fraisaged' piece of dough to form a large clumpy ball of dough.  One good smear of the smaller pieces does it.  You don't want to overdo it....and it's really not entirely necessary to even do it with this dough but that's what the recipe called for so I did it.  I've used this technique for other more delicate pie crusts....bingo!!!  It's a great way to guarantee that your pie crust stays really flaky.  
   
6. Once you've fraisaged all these pieces of dough and formed one ball of dough, cover it in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  It's sort of fun to do this so it's easy to get the butter a little to soft....which is why the longer rest period is preferred.  You'll want the butter to harden back up in the fridge.  
   
7. True confessions:  Ooops....I forgot to add the lemon rind to my eggs so I added it to the dough at the end and just incorporated during the 'fraisage.  It worked fine.   Cooking is about making mistakes and experimenting with solutions.  Like I said...this dough is very forgiving because it's more like a shortbread cookie than puff pastry or pie pastry.     

Making the Filling and Assembling the tart:

1. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees.
2. Butter and flour a 9 inch springform pan.
3. Chop, chop chop and then mix together....the candied fruit or citron, the almonds and the chocolate
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Whip the egg whites with the caster sugar.  If you don't have caster sugar, it's pretty easy to make. I put about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in a coffee grinder and grind for about 9-10 seconds.  You don't want to get to a consistency of powdered sugar.  It should still have the slightest texture of grains.  Some grinders might take a little longer.  I have a Krups and it works fast so after 9 seconds it was done.  Alternatively, you can use a blender if you're making more volume.  The egg whites, when mixed with the sugar and whipped will form very soft peaks like below:
   
5. Add the nut, fruit, chocolate mixture to the egg whites using a spatula to blend.
   
6. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and roll it out to a 14-15 inch diameter that is about 1/4 inch thick.  It has to be be large enough to fit the bottom and sides of the pan.  Layer it in the pan and up the sides.  Trim the excess around the rim.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Pour filling into tart crust and bake for 40 minutes.
   
8. After 40 minutes, turn off the oven and open the oven door for 2 minutes to let the heat escape.  Leave the tart in the oven and then re-close the door.  Let it 'dry' for another 45-60 minutes before removing it.  If anything looks like it's overbrowning, just remove it earlier.  The tart should be lightly browned on top and look like a crisp meringue.  
   
9. Cool completely and remove the sides of the spring-form pan
   
10. Here's the decadent finished product.  It will feed 12!!!!
    

This recipe is really special.  The texture on the inside gets more firm after you refrigerate so it does resemble a soft torrone.   I've already frozen some of this tart because there were only 6 of us to enjoy it the other night.  I'm craving it right now and glad that it's frozen so that I'm not tempted. 

Buona Mangiata!