Monthly Archives: July 2020

Recipes

The Best Cheesecake… Ever!!

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July 30, 2020

I apologize!

This isn’t an Italian recipe.

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I’ve had a taste for cheesecake for months now.  A few weeks ago, I bought cream cheese and sour cream in anticipation of making cheesecake.

Well, yesterday was the day.

I pulled out a recipe that I stumbled upon more than twenty years ago.

It was from a coffee shop in Santa Fe, The Three Cities of Spain, that closed in the mid 1970s!  Apparently, the coffee shop was quite an interesting place!

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I can’t tell you much more about the recipe, though now that I’ve looked, I’ve found a number of versions on the web.

What I can tell you is that if you like cheesecake, MAKE THIS CAKE NOW!

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 The Best Cheesecake... Ever!!
The very short and simple ingredient list belies the deliciousness of this cheesecake. Make it the day before you want to serve it so that it has time to chill and set.
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Rating: 5
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Passive Time 10 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Topping
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Passive Time 10 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Crust
  1. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 inch (24 centimeter) springform pan.
  2. Combine all crust ingredients. Press into the bottom and about one inch up the sides of the buttered springform pan.
Filling
  1. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy, preferably using the paddle of a planetary mixer. Scrape the bowl several times to be sure the cream cheese is well blended.
  2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each addition, and scraping down the bowl.
  3. Add the sugar and blend. Add the vanilla. Turn the mixer to high and beat until very light and fluffy, approximately one minute.
  4. Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. The filling should come over the top of the graham cracker crust.
  5. Bake 350°F for 40-45 minutes or until the cake is jiggly in the center but set about three inches in from the edge.
  6. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to rest for five minutes. Do not turn the oven off.
  7. Prepare the topping.
Topping
  1. Blend all ingredients thoroughly.
  2. After the cake has been out of the oven for five minutes, put the topping on the firm part of the cake, around the edges, then carefully spread it evenly over the entire top of the cake.
  3. Return the cheesecake to the oven for 10 minutes.
  4. About 10 minutes after removing the cake from the oven, run a knife around the side to loosen the crust but do not unmold the cake. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature then cover loosely and refrigerate at least six hours.
  5. About three hours before serving, remove the cake from the refrigerator. Remove the side of the springform pan. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Crostata di Amaretti (Amaretti Tart)

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July 21, 2020

You can keep the chocolate!

It’s not that I don’t like chocolate.  It’s just that I’m not one of those people who thinks chocolate is the absolute best flavor for sweets.

My favorite flavors are almond and coconut.  Preferably together.

I remember a cake I ate when I was 12 years old.  It was an absurdly moist yellow cake that tasted of almond and coconut.

A bottle of Amaretto di Saronno before it was rebranded.

In memory of that cake, which I had only once, I have an entire stash of coconut-almond cake recipes.  I’m building up to the day when I head to my kitchen in Palm Springs (so I can bake without contending with the nearly 8000-foot elevation of Villa Sentieri) and bake coconut-almond cakes every day till I create one that tastes the way I remember it.

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In the meantime, I make lots of coconut- and almond-based desserts including almond gelato, maraschino cherry cake with almond filling (from the first edition Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook), raspberry bars with almond crust, coconut pistachio crumb cake, Brazilian coconut pudding, coconut pie, Marcona almond blondies, and wattalappam (a coconut custard from Sri Lanka) among many, many others.

Zia Fidalma selecting produce at a supermarket.

One of my favorites, is an improbable recipe I got from Great Aunt Fidalma in Tuscany nearly 20 years ago for a crostata (tart) with a filling of crushed amaretti cookies and amaretto liqueur.

I know, I know, amaretti and amaretto only pretend to be almond.  They’re really made from apricot pits.  At least the commercial versions are made from apricot pits.

You knew that, right?

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The brand of amaretti I typically buy is Lazzaroni.  It’s the one that comes in the red tin.  Until recently, the brand of liqueur I bought was Amaretto di Saronno.  In 2001 Amaretto di Saronno was rebranded to Disaronno Originale.

Amaretto di Saronno after it was rebranded Disaronno in 2001.

When I went to buy the Amaretto to make this crostata, I found an unfamiliar one from the makers of the cookies, Lazzaroni Amaretto.

While Amaretto di Saronno is made from infusing apricot pits, the good folks at Lazzaroni say that they infuse their famous cookies (which, of course, contain apricot pits).

Lazzaroni amaretti and an amaretto liqueur by the same company.

Since the flavor of this crostata is entirely dependent on the amaretti and the amaretto, I suggest you buy good quality ones.

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 Crostata di Amaretti (Amaretti Tart)
Use very good quality amaretti cookies and amaretto liqueur as the taste of the crostata is completely dependent on them. You can buy amaretti in packages of 200 grams, if you buy a larger quantity, weight out 200 grams or 7 ounces. Most home cooks in Italy buy little envelopes of powered (artificial) vanilla flavoring. These are not common in the United States, so I’ve substituted vanilla extract. You can use one envelope of Italian vanilla flavor instead of one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Pasta Frolla
Filling
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Pasta Frolla
Filling
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Instructions
Pasta Frolla
  1. Blend the flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla powder, if using, salt and lemon zest in a food processor until combined.
  2. Add the butter, cut in pieces, and vanilla extract, if using, then blend till well combined.
  3. Add the eggs and blend till the pastry almost forms a ball.
  4. Remove the pastry from the food processor and use your hands to press everything into a single ball.
  5. Wrap the pastry in waxed paper and refrigerate for an hour before using.
  6. Roll the pasta frolla into a 13-inch circle.
  7. Line a greased 10" deep dish tart pan with a removable bottom with Pasta Frolla going about 1 inch up the sides. Trim the excess and use it to patch the crust if necessary.
Filling and Assembly
  1. Reserve six amaretti for garnish.
  2. Crush the remaining amaretti and combine with liqueur, and vanilla extract, if using.
  3. Soak, occasionally crushing the amaretti further, until thick and batter-like.
  4. Combine sugar, lemon zest and vanilla powder, if using.
  5. Combine the egg yolk and the sugar mixture with the amaretti mixture. Mix well.
  7. Beat the three egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff.
  8. Fold a spoonful of the egg whites into the amaretti mixture to lighten it.
  9. Gently fold in the remainder of the whites, in two portions.
  10. Pour the filling into the tart pan lined with pasta frolla.
  11. Garnish the top with the reserved whole amaretti.
  12. Bake at 350°F approximately 30 minutes, until golden brown.
  13. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes then gently remove the sides of the pan. (I like to do this by setting the pan on a large can then gently jiggling the pan apart.)
  14. Cool thoroughly on a rack.
  15. The crostata should be stable enough to slide off the bottom of the tart pan and onto a serving platter.
  16. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Sformato di Patate (Italian Potato “Cake”)

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July 13, 2020

I published a photo for this dish on my Facebook feed last week and got so much attention that I decided to actually post the recipe.

Sformato di Spinaci (spinach sformato or, if you must, spinach casserole) is a dish that garners great reverence in my husband’s family.  A while ago, I published my adaptation of the family recipe.

I make sformati out of lots of different vegetables besides spinach, including Swiss chard, zucchini, and cauliflower, among others.

Sometimes I swap out the ground beef in my husband’s grandmother’s recipe for sausage or Calabrese salame, or mushrooms.  This is a heretical act in his family but everyone still eats the sformato.  This is compounded  by the blasphemy of adding besciamella to the mix.

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Although I make several versions of potato “cakes” I never thought of them as sformati until I stumbled upon the genre while perusing Italian-language food websites.

Although I had mixed meat, such as salame or prosciutto, and cheese into the potato mixture before baking it, I had never made a layer of filling in the middle.  Doing so changes the whole character of the dish.  It really feels like a main course (or what would be a secondo in an Italian meal) rather than gussied up potatoes that should be served as a side dish (contorno)!

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When serving sformato di patate, I often start with soup and end with a salad… unless it’s a meal for which I developed a new gelato flavor to try! (This happens once, if not twice, per week… the gelato, not the sformato!)

This recipe calls for prosciutto cotto (cooked ham).  This is not the cured ham that we simply call “prosciutto” in English.  It really is just a cooked ham.  Typically, it would not be smoked.  I have successfully made this with good quality ham from the deli counter as well a fully-cooked lightly-smoked ham from the meat counter.

Since the cheese is smoked, I find that smoked ham works as well as un-smoked ham though the former is more traditional.

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 Sformato di Patate (Italian Potato "Cake")
Italian prosciutto cotto is not smoked so the most traditional ham would be unsmoked but since the cheese is smoky, I’ve occasionally used a lightly smoked ham and gotten fantastic results. If the ham is not sliced very, very thinly, cut it into batons about the size of wooden matchsticks. I’ve chosen to keep this recipe in the metric measures that I use. You can click the button below to change to American measures. Feel free to round the quantities up or down a bit.
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Course Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Peel the potatoes. Dice and cook in salted water until they can be easily pierced with a fork but are not falling apart.
  2. While still hot, pass the potatoes through a ricer and allow to cool until they are comfortable to touch.
  3. Combine potatoes with eggs, Parmigiano and milk. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Butter a 22 cm springform pan and coat with fine dry breadcrumbs.
  5. Press about 60% of the potato mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
  6. Layer the prosciutto and scamorza inside, making two alternating layers of each.
  7. Top with the remaining potato mixture and smooth the top.
  8. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and dot generously with butter.
  9. Bake at 350°F for approximately one hour, until golden, adding the rosemary sprig to the top of the sformato after about 20 minutes of baking.
  10. After an hour, the internal temperature should be close enough to 165°F that it will reach that temperature while it rests.
  11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool approximately 15 minutes before removing the sides of the pan and serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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