Proud Italian Cook

Apple Wrapped Ricotta Tarts

October 20, 2009 by Marie 43 Comments

The other day while I was photo grazing over at TasteSpotting, I came across Confessions of a Tart, she had just posted apple and ricotta tartlets. What caught my eye was that instead of a pastry crust, she used sliced apples. What a great idea! A dessert I don’t have to feel guilty about eating, and besides that, it just sounded so good to me. I knew I was going to make this.

I wanted to change mine up a bit, so I decided to add some rum soaked golden raisins to the ricotta mixture, which turned out adding great flavor to the ricotta. Basically you slice apples very thin, and then you arrange them in overlapping circles inside muffin cups. Irene had a great visual on this so take a look at her photo here. This takes a little time and patience, and as you can see from my little tart above, my apple layering didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as Irene’s.

So I decided to pull out my little 8″ spring form pan, butter up the sides and bottom and then layered my apples around the bottom and along the side. As soon as I spread the ricotta mixture down it served as a wall and I added more apple slices in layers along the side. This was way easier for me to handle, and I think the result turned out nice. What do you think?

The only thing I would suggest if you use a spring form pan, is to wrap tin foil around the bottom and lower sides so that none of the juice from the apple slices will seep through and smoke up your oven.

Here’s the ingredients:

This recipe makes 8 tartlets, but you can double or triple the recipe, if you want to make more than 8, or if you want to use a spring form pan.

**Rum soaked golden raisins.

**4 firm apples, peeled, cut, cored and sliced thin for layering.

**8oz. of ricotta cheese.

**4T of sugar.

**1 egg.

Drain your raisins and sprinkle on top of your ricotta mixture.

Bake 350F for 30-35 minutes until set and puffed. If you’re making the tartlets let them cool and remove them gently with a tablespoon, I found that worked well. Taste great warm or cold!

We throughly enjoyed ever bite of this!

Buon Appetito!!

Eggs al Forno

October 16, 2009 by Marie 33 Comments

Al Forno means “from the oven” and that’s exactly where I like to get my breakfast from on a cold and rainy weekend morning. A thick sliced crusty baguette layered with cheese, topped with an egg, and more cheese. Crunchy, creamy and oozing with goodness!

So simple to make, here are your ingredients.

Heat oven to 500F.

Butter an individual casserole dish** Place a thick slice or two of a toasted baguette snugly in the bottom of the dish** Drizzle with olive oil** Sprinkle grated fontina cheese all over the bread along with grated Parmesan** Crack and egg or two on top of the cheese** Sprinkle with more grated Parmesan, salt and fresh ground pepper and another drizzle of olive oil** Garnish with sliced scallions** Bake until eggs are set, about 10 minutes**
Recipe adapted from La Brea Bakery

Make sure the coffee is brewed and serve this up immediately while it’s still nice and warm!

Enjoy your weekend!
Buon Appetito!

33 Comments Filed Under: Eggs Tagged: baked eggs, eggs al forno, weekend breakfast

Pork Saltimbocca and 26.2

October 12, 2009 by Marie 28 Comments

In a pinch and need a quick meal? In about 10 minutes or so you can have this for dinner! Lean, thin cut, pork cutlets sauteed in a buttery white wine sauce topped with prosciutto and a sage leaf. So simple with a ton of flavor, no wonder saltimbocca translated means, ” jump in the mouth”!

*First you’ll want to take your cutlets and pound them down a little to flatten them out a bit.

*Season your cutlets with salt and ground pepper.

*Take a slice of prosciutto and lay it on your cutlet, and gently pound it into the meat, add a sage leaf on top.

*Drizzle a hot pan with olive oil and prosciutto side down fry cutlets about 2 minutes on each side.

*Remove from pan and deglaze with 1 cup of white wine, scrapping up all the brown bits.

*Add 3T of butter to gloss the sauce.

*Return the cutlets back to the sauce and finish cooking. Buon Appetito!

2009 Chicago Marathon

I want to give a big shout out to my son for completing his 2nd Chicago Marathon which was yesterday. That’s him on the right in yellow ready to cross the finish line. He actually knocked 50 minutes off his time from last year! He amazes us all with his dedication and determination! The weather yesterday in Chicago was bitter cold, great for the runners, but not so great for the spectators, notice the gloves, hats, scarves and winter coats. I thought this was fall!