fruit desserts Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Paccheri Pasta and Some Party Ideas

This is the perfect side dish to all your grilling, individual little bundles of cooked Paccheri pasta stuffed with roasted vegetables, cheese and sun dried tomatoes. Tastes best when served at room temperature with a fresh herb, lemon, olive oil and parmesan dressing drizzled all over the top, great to bring to a party or picnic!
Equally as good is the caprese version using sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil all tucked inside with an olive oil and balsamic glaze drizzled all over the top!

Paccheri pasta are large hollow tubes shaped similar to rigatoni only bigger and wider.

I roasted planks of zucchini and eggplant and then tucked in some asiago cheese and a sun dried tomato for mine.

Just cook the pasta according to the package, let it cool, then stuff them with whatever inspires you!

I had some leftover cooked pasta so I decided to stuff the remaining ones using a zip lock bag filled with spinach, ricotta, lots of grated cheese and an egg. Fill them and stand them straight up, side by side until you fill the pan, adding sauce on top and in between.

I have several mini spring form pans which I love to use and often do for an individual take on this dish.

Olive oil and brush with sauce the bottom and sides of your mini spring form pan, I have a 4″ pan. I’m sure you could use a larger one if you wanted to, but I think the smaller ones are cuter and they come out looking like a little flower!

And here’s something for dessert that will surely have your guests talking! Vodka infused whipped cream! It comes in many different flavors, we had the chocolate and vanilla. It works just like traditional whipped cream, but only for grown ups!

My daughter brought this over on the fourth of July, it was quite a hit!

Extremely good with strawberries or grilled fruits of any kind, top off your cup of coffee with it, or squirt some on a piece of pie. Use your imagination and enjoy!

Buon Appetito!

Pears for Dessert, 3 Ways!

Here’s a few simple desserts using fresh pears which I happen to have an abundance of!
Marsala Baked Pears, doesn’t that sound good to you? Believe me when I tell you, it was!

The flavor is out of this world because what happens here is while the pears are baking their continually soaking up butter and Marsala to the point where they become beautifully caramelized, when finished and still warm they become the perfect companion to ice cream,
whipped cream, or luscious mascarpone! You can garnish with something crunchy like nuts or crumbled biscotti, need I say more?

Not really a recipe, here’s what you do;

Peel and slice pears lengthwise, place them in a baking dish, pour in sweet Marsala wine half way up the side of the pears, place dabs of butter all around and sprinkle wine with sugar or you can even use honey just to sweeten everything up a bit. Place in a 350F oven for around a good hour basting them often, you’ll know their done when the liquid becomes caramelized.

Pear and Ricotta Tart, This is a standard recipe I use whenever I want to bake a fruit of any sort with ricotta. I use a 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom then place a good pre made pie dough into the bottom, ( I told you it was simple!) of course you can make your own if you like. To insure the dough being crusty and cooked on the bottom I like to blind bake the dough for a five minutes in a 425F oven by placing a piece of parchment paper on top and then adding some beans or pie weights, then remove, take off the weights and reduce oven to 375F.

For the filling;

1lb ricotta cheese

6 0r 7 ripe pear halves, sliced lengthwise and cored

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

Fresh orange zest or 1 heaping tablespoon of apricot preserves

Pinch of cinnamon

Mix everything together in a bowl until well blended, (except the pears of course). Place filling into pie shell and position pears all around. ( optional, sprinkle and swirl more cinnamon on top) Bake at 375F for around 30 minutes. While still warm brush apricot preserves on top of pears. Let it cool down while you put on a pot of espresso!

And last but not least, Chocolate Ricotta Filled Pears. Turning creamy white ricotta into chocolate is so quick using cocoa powder and then pairing it with orange is a match made in heaven! I can’t wait to try this with strawberries, because we all know how good chocolate and strawberries are!

Poach 3 whole peeled pears in 3 cups of water and 1/4 cup of orange juice, cook around 10 minutes in a covered pan , when pears are tender remove and cool down.When cooled, slice them lengthwise and remove cores.

Ricotta Filling:

1 cup ricotta

1/3 cup of powdered sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mini chocolate chips, ( as many as you like)

Combine everything into a bowl then spoon the mixture into the center of the pears. Garnish with orange zest and more chocolate chips.

Recipe adapted from BHG

Note: For a real quickie, use purchased bottled pears, I tried it, it’s good too!

Buon Appetito!