3. Just before serving, arrange 6 fresh, crisp coffee beans in a circular or other pleasing pattern over the cream. Serve cold.
Note Do not refrigerate with the beans or they will become soggy.
Crema Fritta—Fried Custard Cream
ALTHOUGH crema fritta makes a fine sweet morsel with which to end a meal, it is also served in Italy alongside breaded meats, such as veal cutlets, liver, or lamb chops. It is a classic component of a large fritto misto, the Bolognese mixed fry in which you would find not only several breaded fried meats, but vegetables, cheese, and fruit.
The custard for crema fritta must be made with more flour than the one that goes with zuppa inglese, otherwise it would be too soft for frying. To blend in the flour evenly and smoothly, you must cook it over very slow heat and stir virtually without interruption the entire time. But it can be conveniently prepared earlier in the day for that evening, or even a day in advance.
For 6 servings
2 eggs plus 1 egg for breading the cream
A double boiler
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup flour
2 cups milk
2 small strips lemon peel with none of the white pith beneath
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
Vegetable oil
1. Off heat, break 2 eggs into the top of the double boiler, add the sugar, and beat the eggs until they are evenly blended and the sugar has dissolved almost completely. Mix in the flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all of it has been incorporated into the eggs.
2. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan, and when it just begins to form a ring of tiny bubbles, add it to the eggs, beating it in ¼ cup at a time. When you have added all the milk, put in the lemon peel.
3. In the bottom of the double boiler bring water to the gentlest of simmers, then set the upper part over it. Begin to stir slowly, but steadily. After 15 minutes, you may raise the heat slightly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is thick and smooth and does not taste of flour, about 20 minutes more. When done, pour the cream out onto a moistened platter, spreading it to a thickness of about 1 inch. Allow it to become cold before proceeding.
4. Cut the cold cream into diamond-shaped pieces 2 inches long. Beat the remaining egg in a soup dish or small bowl. Dredge the pieces of cream in bread crumbs, dip them in the beaten egg, then dredge them in bread crumbs again.
5. Pour enough vegetable oil in a frying pan to come 1 inch up its sides, and turn the heat on to medium high. When the oil is very hot, slip in as many pieces of the breaded cream as will fit loosely. When they have formed a nice golden crust on one side, turn them and do the other side. Transfer to a cooling rack to drain. Repeat the procedure if there are more pieces left over to fry. Serve piping hot or no cooler than lukewarm. If serving as dessert, you may want to sprinkle the cream with a little confectioners’ sugar.
Ahead-of-time note You can store the cream at this point for several hours or until the following day. Refrigerate it under plastic wrap.
Ricotta Fritters
THIS IS ONE of the desserts I have nearly always included in my courses. My students love to eat them, but they are also delighted to find that they can make the batter hours ahead of time, and to see how easy and quick the fritters are to make, even when doubling or tripling the recipe for a crowd.
For 4 servings
½ pound fresh ricotta
2 eggs
⅓ cup flour
1½ tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
Salt
Vegetable oil
Honey of runny consistency
1. Put the ricotta in a bowl and crumble it, using two forks held in one hand.
2. Break the eggs into the bowl, and mix them with the ricotta.
3. Add the flour a little at a time, working it into the ricotta and egg mixture with the two forks held in one hand or with a spatula. Add the butter, lemon peel, and a tiny pinch of salt, swirling them into the mixture and beating until all ingredients of the fritter batter are evenly combined.
4. Set the batter aside and allow it to rest for at least 2 hours, but no more than 3½ hours.
5. Pour enough oil into a frying pan to come ½ inch up its sides, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the oil is quite hot—if a driblet of batter dropped in floats instantly to the surface, it is ready—put in the batter, a tablespoonful at a time. Push the batter off the spoon using the rounded corner of a spatula. Do not put in any more at one time than will fit loosely, without crowding the pan.
6. When the fritters have become colored a golden brown on one side, turn them. If they are not puffing slightly into little balls, the heat is too high. Turn it down a little. When the fritters are brown on both sides, transfer them with a slotted spoon or spatula to a cooling rack to drain. If there is batter left over, repeat the procedure until it is all used.
7. Place the fritters on a serving platter, dribble honey liberally over all of them, and bring to the table. They are best perhaps while still hot, but they are very good even when lukewarm or at room temperature.
Baked Apples with Amaretti Cookies
Amaretti, the Italian macaroons with the bitter-almond, fruit-pit flavor, are a classic accompaniment with Italian baked apples. They come wrapped in pairs, and in two sizes, standard and miniature. The recipe below is based on the standard size.
For 4 servings
4 crisp, tart-sweet apples
9 pairs imported Italian amaretti cookies
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, completely softened at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water mixed with ½ cup dry white wine
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Wash the apples in cold water. Use any suitable tool, from an apple corer to a pointed vegetable peeler, to core them from the top, stopping short of the bottom. Create a hole in the center that is ½ inch broad. Prick the apples’ skin in many places, every inch or so, using a pointed knife blade.
3. Double a sheet of wax paper around 7 pairs of the amaretti, and pound them with a heavy object, such as a mallet or meat pounder, until they are crushed to a coarse consistency, but not pulverized. Mix them thoroughly with the very soft butter. Divide the mixture into 4 parts, and pack one part tightly into each apple cavity.
4. Put the apples in a baking pan, right side up. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over each, and pour over them the water and white wine. Place the pan on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.
5. Transfer the apples to a serving platter or individual dishes, using a large metal spatula.
6. There will be some liquid left in the baking pan. Separate the remaining 2 pairs of amaretti, and dip each cookie in the pan, but do not let it become too soggy or it will crumble. Put one of the cookies over the opening of each apple.
7. If the baking pan cannot go over direct heat, pour its contents into a saucepan, and turn the heat on to high. When the liquid has cooked down to a syrupy consistency, pour it over the apples. Serve at room temperature.
Ahead-of-time note The apples can be completed 2 or 3 days in advance and refrigerated, but return them to room temperature before serving.
Chilled Black Grape Pudding
For 4 servings
1 pound fresh black grapes
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
A mixing bowl kept in the freezer
½ cup very cold heavy whipping cream
1. Pull off all the grape berries from their stems and wash in cold water. Insert the disk with the smallest holes in your food mill, and puree all the grapes through the mill into a bowl. If you prefer to use a blender or food processor, first cut the berries open and remove their seeds.
2. Put 1 cup of the pureed grapes into a small saucepan. Add the flour, shaking it through a strainer. Mix thoroughly
until the flour is smoothly combined with the grape puree.
3. Add the sugar to the pureed grapes remaining in the bowl, stirring it until it dissolves completely. Slowly pour the contents of the bowl into the saucepan, stirring constantly all the while.
4. Turn the heat under the saucepan on to low. Stir constantly, cooking until the grape mixture has simmered gently for about 5 minutes and has become rather dense. Adjust heat if necessary to keep the simmer from turning into a boil.
5. Empty the pudding from the pan into a bowl, letting it cool completely at room temperature. Spoon the pudding into 4 individual glass bowls, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but not overnight, before serving.
6. Just before serving, take the bowl out of the freezer, put in the cream, beat it with a whisk until it is stiff, and distribute it among the 4 bowls.
Macerated Orange Slices
AMONG ALL THE WAYS in which a meal can be brought to a fragrant close, none surpasses in refreshment these sliced oranges macerated in lemon peel, sugar, and lemon juice.
For 4 servings
6 sweet juicy oranges
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
The freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
1. Using a sharp paring knife, peel 4 of the 6 oranges, stripping away all the white spongy pith and as much as possible of the thin skin beneath it.
2. Cut the peeled oranges into slices less than ½ inch thick. Pick out all seeds. Put the slices into a deep platter or a shallow serving bowl, and sprinkle with the grated lemon peel. Add the sugar. Squeeze the remaining 2 oranges and add their juice to the platter or bowl. Add the lemon juice, then toss rather gently several times, being careful not to break up the orange slices as you turn them over.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or even overnight. Serve chilled, turning the orange slices over two or three times after taking them out of the refrigerator.
Note I find the oranges quite perfect as they are, but if you want to vary them or give them a more celebratory and emphatic accent, you could toss them, shortly before serving, with 2 tablespoons of one of the following liqueurs: Cointreau, white Curaçao, or best of all, Maraschino (see note).
Macedonia—Macerated Mixed Fresh Fruit
GEOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING, Macedonia is a region in southeastern Europe divided among what used to be Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria. The mixture of peoples that inhabit it must have suggested the name that has become attached to this famous fruit dish, whose success in fact depends on the greatest possible variety of ingredients.
Indispensable to fruit macedonia are apples, pears, bananas, and the juice of oranges and lemons. To these you should add as full a sampling of seasonal fruits as you can assemble, choosing them for diversity of textures, balancing succulence with firmness, giving ripeness the preference, but avoiding mushiness.
For 8 or more servings
1½ cups freshly squeezed orange juice
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
2 or 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (only 1 tablespoon if using the optional liqueur)
2 apples
2 pears
2 bananas
1½ pounds other fruit, such as cherries, grapes, apricots, plums, peaches, berries, mango, melon, and tangerine sections in as varied an assortment as possible
⅓ cup to ½ cup granulated sugar, to taste
OPTIONAL: ½ cup Maraschino liqueur (see note)
OPTIONAL: 3 tablespoons walnuts or peeled almonds, toasted in the oven and chopped coarse
1. In a tureen or punch bowl or other large serving bowl put the orange juice, grated lemon peel, and the lemon juice.
2. All the fruit, save for cherries, tangerine sections, grapes, and berries, must be washed, peeled, cored when applicable, and diced into ½-inch cubes. Add each fruit to the bowl as you prepare it, so that the citrus juices will keep it from discoloring.
3. Wash the cherries, grapes, and berries. Divide the cherries and grape berries in half, pitting the cherries and picking out the grape seeds, if any. Leave the other berries whole, if they are blueberries, raspberries, or currants. Put any blueberries or currants in the bowl. If you are using raspberries or strawberries, which become mushy when they steep in a marinade, add them 30 minutes before serving. Stem the strawberries, and cut the berries in half before adding them to the macedonia.
4. Put in the sugar and the optional liqueur and nuts, and toss thoroughly, but gently, taking care not to mash the more delicate fruits. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but not overnight. Serve chilled, tossing all the fruit gently 2 or 3 times before serving.
Mangoes and Strawberries in Sweet White Wine
MANGOES ARE NOT native to Italy, and absolute fidelity to indigenous ingredients would suggest you do this dish with peaches. If you can buy peaches that were picked ripe and are succulently sweet, forget the mangoes. I never see such peaches, except for a week or two in August, so for the rest of the year mangoes, their exotic flavor and texture notwithstanding, are a more desirable choice. They are usually least expensive when already ripe and ready to use. If they are still firm, let them ripen for 2 to 4 days at home at room temperature, until they begin to give under light pressure from your thumb.
For 6 servings
2 small, ripe mangoes OR 1 large one OR peaches
1½ cups fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
1 cup good sweet white wine (see note below)
Note The ideal wine for macerating fruit is one made from moscato, the most aromatic of all grapes. Throughout the Italian peninsula, and beyond it to the Sicilian islands, ravishing sweet muscat wines are made, and if you chance upon one of these, do not pass it by. If you are obliged to choose a substitute, any fine, natural, late-harvest sweet white wine from Germany, South Africa, or California will do.
1. Peel the mangoes (or peaches), and slice the flesh off the pits. If using peaches, split them in half and remove the pit. Cut the fruit into bite-size pieces of about 1 inch, and put them in a serving bowl.
2. Wash the strawberries in cold water, remove stems and leaves, and slice them lengthwise in half, unless they happen to very small. Add them to the bowl.
3. Add the sugar, lemon peel, and wine to the bowl, and toss the fruit thoroughly, but gently to avoid bruising it. Refrigerate and let steep for 1 to 2 hours. Serve chilled, tossing the fruit once or twice before bringing it to the table.
Black and White Macerated Grapes
THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL bowl of fruit. The purple spheres of the black grapes are divided in half and seeded, and the seedless elongated ovals of the white grapes are left whole. Macerated with orange juice and lemon peel, their fragrance and freshness are irresistible.
For 6 to 8 servings
1 pound seedless white grapes
1 pound large black grapes, not the pale purple seedless ones
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
The freshly squeezed juice of 3 oranges
1. Detach all the grape berries from their stems and wash them in cold water. Put only the white ones into a serving bowl.
2. You must halve the black grapes to extract their seeds. (Seedless red grapes are very bland and are not recommended for this dish.) Hold each berry with the stem end facing up. Use a sharp paring knife, or preferably a small vegetable knife with a serrated blade, to cut the berry horizontally around its middle, cutting it all around, but not all the way through. With your fingertips, hold the upper half of the grape, and with your other hand twist off the bottom half. From the exposed center of one of the halves seeds will protrude; pick them out, and add both halves of the seeded berry to the bo
wl. Repeat the procedure until all the black grapes are done.
3. Add the lemon peel, sugar, and orange juice to the bowl. If the juice is insufficient to cover the grapes, squeeze some more. Toss thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours before serving. Do not keep overnight because the grapes may begin to ferment.
Frullati—Fresh Fruit Whips
A frullato could be described as an adult milk shake, laced with just enough liqueur to make it not merely refreshing, but interesting as well. In summer in Italy, it is something that one orders at an espresso bar, but there is no reason one shouldn’t have it at home, and enjoy it at any time of day. You can make frullati in a food processor, but if you have a blender, it will do a better job.
For 2 servings
1 banana OR an equivalent amount of fresh peaches OR strawberries OR raspberries
⅔ cup milk
1½ teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons crushed ice
2 tablespoons Maraschino liqueur (see note)
All fruit must be washed in cold water, except for the banana. Bananas or peaches must be peeled, the latter pitted, and cut into pieces. Put the fruit and the other ingredients into the bowl of the blender or processor, and whip—at high speed if using the blender—until the ice has completely dissolved, and the fruit has been liquefied. Serve immediately.
GELATO
The most widely accepted explanation for the difference between ice cream and gelato is that there is less air in gelato; hence it is denser. Whether there is less air or not I don’t really know, but it seems beside the point. I started consuming gelato the moment I learned to walk and hold a cone at the same time, and to me it is hardly density that characterizes it, but lightness and freshness of flavor. There is far less fat, less cream, fewer eggs, and no butter in gelato. It is never oversweet or overrich. Mrs. Marshall in a nineteenth-century gem of a book, Ices Plain and Fancy, may not have been thinking of gelato, but she nonetheless perfectly summed up its aim: “… [to] convey to the palate the greatest possible amount of pleasure and taste, whilst … in no way [be] suggestive of nourishment and solidity.”
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Page 67