Italy - First Post of Many to Come! Pear Torte

The driving force behind my trip to Italy was to take cooking lessons so the fact that the weather was terrible on two of the side-trip days didn't bother me much. And really, after you've seen five castles and cathedrals, they all start to look the same! 

This is from the first class. It is a pear, ricotta, and pecorino pie in a puff pastry shell. Nutmeg and pine nuts give it a little extra interest.

Torta Salata con Formaggio and Pere

4 or 5 pears
1 puff pastry circle, thawed
1 egg
3/4 - 1 cup ricotta cheese
5 oz pecorino romano
Couple grinds of nutmeg
Dash of salt
Handful of pine nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel and cut pears into 1 inch-ish chunks. Cut up pecorino to a similar size. 
Add ricotta, egg, nutmeg, salt, and pine nuts, then stir.

Place dough (on parchment) into pan and prick the bottom with a fork. 

Fill with pear mixture and fold edges of pastry over the top.

Cut parchment from around the pan.

Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until inside is firm and pastry is brown.

Tip: This can also be made as a savory pie by substituting the pears with zucchini.

January Dinner

I started with small peppers stuffed with ricotta, chorizo, parmesan, parsley, -- the usual lasagna type filling. I got tired of stuffing the peppers before the filling was gone so I took some egg roll wrappers, filled them with the ricotta mixture, rolled them and dumped some tomato sauce on them. Both the peppers and the lasagna rolls took about 20 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees.


The salad is spinach leaves, parmesan, and onion topped with Tessemae's Lemon Garlic (dressing - marinade - dip). Added some cracked pepper and it was good to go.


The lasagna rolls were a bit starchy and could have used some hot sauce so I'll try them again using flat lasagna noodles instead of won ton wrappers.

Squash Blossoms, part two ... and three ...

Yum. This time, I stuffed the blossoms with ricotta, parmesean, an egg, a little flour, and salt and pepper.

I poached them in 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken broth for about 6 minutes. Water only is fine.

While they are poaching, heat butter in a small pan and add fresh sage leaves.

When the blossoms are done, remove to a plate and top with sage butter.

part three ...

Made these again but this time before topping with sage butter, I fried them quickly to a crispy, golden brown. Then topped with sage butter ... heaven.