Fresh Orange Tart- adding a bit of sun to winter

Enrico,  our favorite citrus vendor

This winter the snow has been slow to arrive after a very early appearance around the 26 October when all was green and the leaves were still on the trees. Now that the white blanket of snow has covered up the unrelenting brown of the winter, it's time for a splash of color. My favorite winter remedy would be the luscious citrus fruits from the south of Italy. Our Sicilian citrus farmers send up some of the tastiest oranges, clementines, and mandarins found anywhere. I always look forward to late autumn when the road side trucks laden with oranges begin to reappear randomly and in regular pull off points where they beckon you to buy a case or two of sunshine and sweetness. Drawn to pull over and inspect the vendors goods, unable to resist the siren song of oranges, we come away with a case of oranges and mandarins. Orange indulgences to follow. We've peeled and juiced these globes of desire until I finally begin to use them up in other ways that requires a tad more effort. 

Tarocco or "Tarot" oranges which are called red oranges here never called blood oranges

I made this orange tart to try and replicate it after having enjoyed a fabulous slice at Caffe' Roma, which is one of our favorite bars in Pinerolo,  The cafe is located at the corner of Piazza Roma, where the daily Farmers market usually draws us in on our market visits. Caffe'Roma is owned and run by 3 brothers, of which 2 work in the  bar and one brother, Francesco, runs the kitchen. I frequently run into the chef shopping at this market and that always puts a smile on my face. I actually see a number of local restauranteurs shopping here and that is so encouraging. Caffe' Roma is a popular lunch time choice, as they serve deliciously genuine and reasonably priced food. You can choose to dine inside or al fresco at one of the curbside tables. I love Franceso's orange tart as it is not one that I have made or enjoyed much before coming to live in Italy. His selection of desserts are always enticing. He has shared his talent, teaching workshops at the restaurant, and at Frossasco's Mueso del Gusto. Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend, so I am left to my own resources. My recipe for this tart is pretty simple as he told it should be. Perhaps not the perfection that I found in his balance of flavor and technique, but tasty and worth making when you want to bring a little sunshine into your day.

Crostat di Arance---Fresh Orange Tart

Fresh Orange Tart or Crostata di Arance

Yields: 1-10 inch or 1-25 cm  crust
Oven Temp 200*C /375*F to blind bake the crust then later to 190*C / 350*F

Pasta Frolla

Ingredients:

200g flour, plain flour or Italian 00 (1 1/2 c / 7 oz flour**) 
125g butter, chilled, but not soft or too hard (1/2c / 4.4 oz)

75 g sugar, granulated or castor (6 T / 2.6 oz)

2 egg yolks

Add sugar to the flour and mix.

Cut the butter into smallish pieces and rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.

Make a well in the middle of the dough.

Add the egg yolks, and stir or mix well with your hands till it comes together in a soft dough.

Knead lightly and briefly to get a smooth dough, being careful not to work the dough too much

Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, as it makes it easier to handle.

Roll out on floured surface or between lightly floured parchment paper for ease.

**Cooks notes: I have found the dough might require more flour as weight to volume flour conversions can vary greatly. Add a little flour at a time if you think the dough is too sticky to get it to be a manageable dough and if necessary, be generous with the flour when rolling the dough out.

For the filling:

Orange peel (organic is best) 

1/2 c sugar 

1/2 c  water

500g oranges slices, peeled  (a little over a pound of oranges, after peeled, maybe 4)

Apricot preserves or Orange marmalade,  a goodly amount as needed for covering the crust and glazing the top,

Brandy or rum

Directions:

Mix up the pasta frolla and refrigerate.

While waiting for the dough to chill, prepare your filling.

Wash the whole oranges and wipe dry.

Before removing the peel from the orange, I either zest or use a channel knife to remove the orange peel zest or strips before actually removing it from the orange itself. 

If you hve neither tool, remove the peel form the oranges, making sure to remove the white pith from the orange. If the white pith is too plentiful scrape some off with a small paring knife. 

Julienne (cutting the peel into thin slivers) the peel.

 In a small sauce pan add the water and sugar and heat to boil. 

When the sugar is dissolved add some or all of the peel. You might need to increase the amount of equal parts of sugar/ water if you have a lot of peels. 

Simmer the peels in the sugar water till softened and translucent. Remove from the syrup and lay flat on a plate or waxed paper when cooled to dry slightly. 

Set aside.

Slice your peeled oranges into rounds and set aside also.

Roll your pastry out to fit a 10" or 25 cm removable bottom tart tin.

Place your pasta frolla in the pan and trim as needed.

Prick the bottom of the pastry generously with a fork.

Line the pastry with baking paper and weigh down with beans or another pan that fits inside. 

Blind bake at 200* C / 375*F for about 20-25 minutes, removing the pan partway though the baking so the middle bakes more thoroughly. With beans or weights, i would bake with them on top the whole time. 

Cool slightly.

Mix your preferred preserves with a few drop of brandy or rum to thin slightly. Warm up on the stove top to make it easier to spread. 

Cover the bottom with a thinnish layer of preserves. I used marmalade as I have quite a bit on hand that I make. 

Now cover the bottom with your jam and crust with the orange slices in a decorative circle, slightly overlapping the edges, till all is covered.

Lower the temperature of your oven to 190*C/350*F

Bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes to cook through. 

Thin more marmalade with liquor to make a thin glaze and light glaze the whole tart while warm. Let cool at least 15 minutes before trying to cut it. It will be hard to resist the urge to devour it right out of the oven, but do wait or the crust will crumble. 

Great served at room temperature and is just as tasty the next day or so. 

Let the sun shine through!

Caramel Mascarpone Berry Tartlets

When I don't post anything on my "view" for awhile, it usually means that we have been busy at the B&B and all the myriad things that entails. That is exactly what is going on at the moment. Add in a bounty of fruit to make jams and put away for another day when you crack open a jar or thaw some nice nice plump berries and the summer comes rushing back like a warm breath of air. Lucky for us we have wonderful guests to pamper and look after and send them on their way, sometimes with a few extra grams or ounces to remember us by.
If you are like me you have been finding ways to beat the heat and make your time in the kitchen minimal and yet satisfyingly tasty. When these gorgeous "frutti di bosco" as they are called here or forest fruits practically jumped into my basket, I knew that minimal preparation would be the best way to taste the luscious sweetness these bedazzling jewels were offering and keep me from just plunking them on top of some creamy apricot sorbetto.  Fair enough. We have had enough hot weather after a cool wet start this season that the fruit has been stunning. Bring it on I say.

Hard to resist these beauties.

Red gooseberries, blackberries, blue berries and rose colored currants (to die for)

Rummaging around, it didn't take me long to marry up a few of my favorite standards in my kitchen's speedway to heaven, to turn out some tartlets that won accolades from my eaters and a request for the recipe. Writing up a recipe is usually the hardest part for me, naturally. I can be exacting when it comes to baking, but I can also be quite cavalier with throwing things together and hoping for the best.

These look pretty edible wouldn't you say?

The recipe is fairly loose and really up for your interpretation, so I'll tell you what I did and then you most definitely must have at it. Time's a wasting.

Summer Berry Tartlets  or 
Caramel Mascarpone Cream Berry Tartlets

Yields 8  (3-4" or 8 cm tartlets)

For the fruit

I used about 1/2 pt total fruit, maybe a bit more
I used blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, red gooseberries, rose currants and sweet cherry halves.
I think strawberry, peach, apricot and plum slices would be equally as delicious. Mix and match what you have or can find.
Wash your fruit and pat dry.

For the crust

• 2 cups of crushed cookie/biscuit/biscotti , your choice. I used a Nibby Buckwheat cookie I had on hand
• 1/4c (50g) melted unsalted butter
• 2 T demerara sugar or coarse brown sugar or some sort of unrefined sugar

Mix all together in a bowl and press the mixture into  8 greased and  lightly floured, removable bottom tartlet pans
Make sure your base is completely covered and slightly up the sides of the pans. Better to have the bottom covered with crumbs than up the sides for ease of removing from the pan later.
Chill till firm before adding any of the other layers.

For the filling

Caramel layer
I had about 1 1/2 c (150g) caramel I had made previously. It was cold so easier to work with.

If you need a recipe to go by this one works well and will yield enough for all of these tarts.

• 1/2 c water
• 1 1/2c (100g) sugar
• 1 c cream, heavy

Place you sugar and water in a heavy bottomed, tall sided pan and stir, just to start the sugar to dissolve. Place on low heat and stir occasionally till it dissolves.
Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and raise your heat to medium high. It will start to color and you may need to swirl the pan gently to distribute the color.
If needed you can wash the sides down with a pastry brush and just enough water to dissolve any crystals that might develop as you cook it. Go light on the water.
Cook until desired golden brown and remove from heat.
Add in your heavy cream all at once being careful as it will boil up. Hence the need for tall sided pan.
Cool until thickened and not too runny or too thick to spread. You can restir if necessary.

Mascarpone layer

1-8 or 12 oz (250g) carton of mascarpone cream  I'm not sure what sizes it comes in in the states
2 T unrefined sugar. blond cane sugar or regular
2 T amaretto or liqueur of your choice and to taste
2 T heavy cream

Turn the cream into a roomy mixing bowl and whisk it a bit.
Add the sugar, whisk
Add  some the cream and Amaretto to get a spreadable consistency, but not too thin that it won't hold the fruit in place when spread on the tartlets. Adjust amounts of cream and amaretto to reach the right consistency. I use a hand whisk so I am careful not to over whisk it and get a runny mess. I find that sometimes different brands and quality of mascarpone will give different results. Some brands get quite watery quickly, so keep that in mind when you are whisking away.

To assemble

Remove your chilled tartlet, spread a layer of the caramel over all of the bottoms and chill again. I find a quick trip to the freezer for about 10 minutes is optimum for my technique.
Once the  caramel is set in place then remove from freezer and evenly distribute the cream amongst the tartlets and smooth out evenly.
Place your fruit on top slightly pressing the fruit into the cream.
I then chill the tarts for at least an hour before serving, although they will hold longer in the refrigerator.
As long as you are using uncut fruit it wouldn't be necessary to glaze your fruit. If however you are using cut fruit like strawberries and soft stone fruits, then you might thin some apricot or currant jam (ha ha have fun easily finding that in the US) with a table spoon or two of brandy , slightly heating it up and brush the cut fruit with the thinned jam mixture to keep the fruit from turning brown. Chill before serving.

Remove the tartlets from their pans and serve with a light sparkling moscato or fruit juice spritzer for a summer time treat.

Pear Martine Tart

The weather is still quite frosty....so,
I couldn't resist offering up another recipe out the Nonna Genia Cookbook. This double crusted polenta tart filled with tiny heirloom poached pears, melts in your mouth, leaving you begging for more. Well, that's at least what one of our friends said the other night after his second helping. Next time he cautioned, "forget the rest of the dinner and serve only this tart, it's that good." Spoken like the true Piemontese man that he is.

Yes, I have been on a bit of a polenta kick, but, tis still the season in this part of the world.
Martine pears are an old Piemontese variety that are a small, hard and too dry to eat raw, so they are one of the traditional pears that you will find softened up by the wonderful process of cooking them in a wine bath with plenty of spices. It can be white or red, or you may poach them in a spicy simple syrup. I cooked up a batch enough for the tart and to savor while still warm and fragrant just after the flame goes off. The ones you are using for the tart will need to cool a bit before you peel, slice and pop them into your crust lined tart pan. I cooked mine so that they were still firm since they will be baked in the oven as well. I added small whole plums that are about the size of cherries that I had bottled earlier this year and paired nicely with the pears to add a contrast in flavors between the buttery layers. I peeled my pears after poaching, although if you peel them before they will have a beautiful red color.
I was chatting with the market woman from whom I bought them, and mentioned this recipe from Alba in the Langhe, our famous wine growing region, and not quite an hour away from here. My little vendor lady is 85 years old and was amazed to hear about putting these in a polenta crust. Several other of the vendors were listening in and joined in the discussion. None of them had ever heard of a polenta crust for using with these pears. There ensued a lively discussion, between the stalls. I am continually amazed how different things can be in such short distances here. It makes me think about how cut off people were in the old days and the recipes here vary valley to valley to plains. It is remarkable to me, unlike in America when the latest green bean casserole hits one part of America, it spreads around the country like a virus.
I might just have to make a tart to take down there one of these days, but I think it's out of the question for this year, because I scoured the whole market the other day and nobody had any of these. So I guess that's one for next year and it's on to the next brand of firm pear to try.

Torta di Pere Martine

For the pears
500g (generous pound) Martine pears, (or any hard variety that will hold up when poached)
1/2 bottle of Dolcetto wine, or your favorite fruity red wine
300g (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cinnamon stick
10 whole cloves

Mix together in a pot that will hold the lot and simmer, covered, 45 minutes to an hour.
Remove from the syrup, reserve for another poaching or reduce the wine down for a sauce as an accompaniment, is another delish option.

For the crust
75 g-100g (1/4 -1/3 or so cup) flour
150g (1 cup) polenta flour, You could use corn flour, but it is much nicer if a coarser grind is used
100g (1/2 sugar)
100g (1/2c or less) butter, firm, but not right out of the fridge, cut up into smaller pieces
3 egg yolks

Small plums, like green gages, a handful or so
10" or 25cm Tart pan with removable bottom, buttered and floured.

Thoroughly mix the flour and polenta and sugar. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, fork or as I did last time. with my fingers. I worked quickly so the butter didn't melt, but only softened enough to make a nice crumbly texture. I added the egg yolk in last and mix with a fork before gathering it up into a mound. I used a bit of extra flour to make handling easier, as it seems to need just a bit more flour. It will vary I think depending on your texture of your polenta. I let it rest in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. Then I divided it into two slightly uneven portions, rolling then out between sheets of parchment paper. Cling film will work as well, but you might need to refrigerate the sheets if they become too warm. The larger portion went in my buttered and floured tart pan before I layered thick slices of pears all round the bottom and arranged the small plums scattered on top of the pears. Cover with the second sheet and seal.

Bake in a preheated 350*F/180*C for 10-15 minutes, increasing the heat to 375*F/190*C for another 20-25, or until golden brown. Keep an eye on it as it is quite buttery and can go beyond golden quite quickly.
Cool before serving warm with a drizzle or drowning of wine sauce.

Cooks notes
The original recipe calls for peeling and cubing the pears before poaching. Then you pour the whole mixture in to a square pan that has been lined. I had visions of not being able to get the mixture out of the pan from the juices soaking through, so I reserved the liquid for a sauce to go along with and I liked the results very much. I think I would use more of the plums next time, as I enjoyed the combination. You could use cherries in place of the plums.

I find the curvaceous topping appealing, what do think?

Puff Pear Tartlettes to the rescue!

What to do when the dinner guests arrive that your husband thought had canceled?

Pull out the home made ravioli that I try to always have tucked away in our freezer for just such occasions, while he makes his much loved standard cinghiale (wild boar) stew. Fab's mother contributes some porcini for pasta sauce and we're almost covered. What to do for dolci? Fresh out of the semi freddo I try to keep on hand also for the afore mentioned situation. Fab doesn't normally get mixed up that often, but we do have hungry guests drop in with little or no notice, no problem. We try to be prepared, as you do in the hospitality business. I certainly got more than my fair share of practice when I worked for Copper Mt Resort, where there were more last minute surprises to cope with than one could possibly imagine, unless you have been in the food business yourself. In a large resort with multiple restaurants, cafeterias, banquets and John Q Public, you can find yourself scrambling to facilitate birthdays, anniversaries, allergies, celebrities and ballooning banquet numbers at the drop of a hankie. Responding calmly and quickly has been a skill honed over the years and quite frankly, I tend to thrive on the challenge or at least don't get too ruffled,.... "e cosi".

So one of my favorite life savers is the fruit puff pastry tarlette.

Depending on the time of the year or what you have on hand I have found pear or apple to be a consistent winner. You can make your own puff pastry as it isn't as difficult as one thinks,
merely time consuming and the results are tasty and satisfying. I added a very easy to follow"How to Make Puff Pastry" video ( if you can just get past the introduction) from
Ms Glaze's Pomme d'Amour.
I do sometimes make up fresh past sfolgia into sheets to freeze, just like commercial bakers, but have found it to suffer a bit more from freezer burn a bit quicker than I like, so I tend to make it when I know I will have a number of occasions to use it within the period of a couple of weeks. Other wise, commercially made frozen sheets will work beautifully and offer a decent result especially when served warm.

So to that end I took one sheet of puff dough cut it into 6 rectangles,
thawed but cold sheet of puff dough, roughly about
9"(23cm) by 12"(30cm).
When using your own home made dough, you want it about a 1/4 inch thick (1/2 cm).
1 tablespoon of jam, I use my apricot or plum usually, but chestnut cream is delicious also. Spread jam in the middle of the dough into a diagonal mound.
3 pears or apples (tart ones are my preference) peeled, halved, cored and very thinly sliced diagonally is nice, keeping the shape of the fruit as you place it on the prepared dough and fan he fruit out slightly.
Be sure to leaf sufficient dough uncovered to allow the dough to puff up around the fruit when baking.
Brush the edges of the bare dough with a bit of egg wash, (egg white mixed with a splash of water)
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of the fruit and bake at a 375*F 190-200*C till puffed and golden. Serve with vanilla or caramel gelato or sauce and serve.
Wait for the oohs and aahs to commence.

How to Make Puff Pastry

Eat a Peach or two and maybe a Crostata

It seems like berry season was far too short before it went straight into apricot and peach season. The peaches have been luscious and tasty of late and I can't seem to get enough of them. I have been making a variety of peach deserts like "pesche ripiene", which is a local Piemontese favorite. Peach halves scooped out and refilled with the fruit combined with ameretti cookies and a bit of this and that and baked soft. Also I have poached peaches and blackberries with a sprig of fresh rosemary added to the pot to add an intriguing "je ne sequoi" before ladling over fresh made vanilla bean gelato. Or one of my favorite standards, Crostata. Crostata is one Italian dessert that seems to unite the regional cuisines into a standard all time favorite. Most commercially made ones have a thick crumbly cooky crust, called Pasta Frolla, filled with a generous layer of apricot, plum or strawberry jam and topped off with a lovely wide criss cross top crust. Often the family Sunday lunches are graced by these homely tarts brought and made by one or more of the guests . I decided that since I needed to have the oven on to bake bread the other day, I might as well have a fresh peach crostata to complement our dinner.I have a couple of different versions of Pasta Frolla that I have collected from a few sources along the way. I've been asked what frolla means and as best as I can translate it seems to mean tender. So a tender dough, which is fitting for this particular version.
You generally find that pasta frolla dough can elicit a long winded discussion with all ladies present claiming to have the best version. We went to our annual Scopri Piemonte Bed & Breakfast Association Potluck meeting recently and the strawberry rhubarb version brought by our president of the association, was quite a good one and I was told that the crust was an "Artusi." For those of you not familiar with Pellegrino Artusi, he was a retired silk merchant that around the turn of the 20th century, at the ripe age of 71, wrote the first entirely Italian language cookbook that has become the standard by which all others are measured. (A bit like Betty Crocker or Joy of Cooking, although they arrived later on the food scene) He called it the "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene" (The Science of cookery and the Art of Eating Well). It is still the standard by which recipes are held up against in Italy. Check out the link to Kyle Philips of About.com/Italian Food for a wealth of information, stories and recipes all about Italian cuisine and wine. He's an American who grew up and settled in Tuscany and took on the challenge of translating the book into English. His translation is called the "Art of Eating Well".
Anyway, this frolla dough is quick and easy. My version can be quite fast when using some of my home made jam as a base, topped with thinly sliced fresh fruit, a sprinkle of sugar on top, a pat or two of butter or not, criss cross some wide strips of frolla or indulge your whimsical side with some cookie cut out shapes. Egg wash strips or cut outs and bake till brown and bubbly. Sits well overnight unlike flaky crusts and most Italians have it for breakfast with their cappuccinos if they didn't finish it all the day before.

This crust is from Kyle Philips translated "Artusi" version.

Artusi Pasta Frolla

• 2 cups flour(200 g)
• 1/2 cup sugar(95 g)
• 2/3 cup (150 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg and 1 yolk
• The grated zest of a half a lemon or a quarter of an orange

Mix the flour and sugar. Cream the butter, then add the egg and yolk before gingerly adding the four sugar mixture. Handle the dough as little as possible to keep the butter from melting. You can make the dough a day ahead, as it will improve with age, other wise refrigerate the dough for about an hour.
Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C). Choose a 9-10 inch tart pan with removable bottom, or pie pan if you don't have a tart pan. You can use a cake pan as well and perhaps line it with some parchment paper to make it easier to remove if you would like to serve it without the pan. Otherwise grease and flour your pan or use a nonstick spray.

Divide your dough into two parts with one part being about twice the size of the other, using the larger part for your bottom. You can roll your dough between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap if you don't feel confident, making sure to work quickly without warming the dough too much so that the dough gets soft and sticks. Roll the dough out about a half inch thick circle. If it does stick, just pop it into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes and you're ready to roll again or to place the rolled out dough into your desired tart or decorative pie pan. Fill the tart shell with a thick coating of jam.

I used my home made plum and then added thinly sliced peaches. I also like apricot with apple slices and if you want your very own home made fig newtons, this crust is perfect for that as well. I love it with pretty much any of my home made jams. Italians tend to just use straight jam and make sure the jam is about 1/2 inch thick before adding your top. I generally prefer a thinner amount of jam and sliced fresh fruit to cover.

Roll the second round of chilled dough into more of an oblong round, slightly longer that your pan and cut into wide strips with a fluted pastry wheel if you have one. Make wide criss cross lattices on your tart. or use decorative cookie cutter shapes to finish off your top. Brush with a bit of egg white thinned with a splash of water for added shine and sparkle. I didn't do that in the tart pictured here, so it will turn out fine without the wash also.

Bake the crostata for about 20 minutes, or until the dough begins to brown, being careful not to over bake. You want it to just start to bubble and brown lightly. Enjoy day or night.