Jerusalem Artichoke Tart with Truffle Cream

It looks like the season for Jerusalem artichokes, which are among my favorite winter vegetables, has started. I saw them in several places, so last week I got a pound of them for the first time this year.

I had a vague idea of but not a concrete recipe for what I would do with them. I wanted to make a tart, something that always works and that I like very much. I imagined that a tart similar to a sweet apple tart, French style but with Jerusalem artichokes could taste great.

I made a pie crust but this time I rolled it out very thin, to the size of a large pizza dish. First, I baked it until set, then I placed a layer of paper-thin artichoke slices. Those familiar with Jerusalem artichokes know that they have a nice earthy and slightly sweet taste. So to contrast their sweetness I added a tbsp of truffle purée to the cream.

These days, truffle purée, or a more affordable truffle-porcini purée, is available in cans or jars in many stores. For example, in our area, Balducci carries it. And although some consider truffles the most overrated gourmet food, I often use truffle aroma to make a bland dish more interesting.

At the end, I covered the tart with grated cheese. I used Gruyère as it has a stronger flavor than most other cheeses and also melts nicely. I think the whole concept worked. The tart came out very well: very thin and slightly crispy from thanks to the artichokes and very aromatic thanks to the truffles.



Jerusalem Artichoke Tart with Truffle Cream
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
For the crust
2 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour,
10 tbsp cold unsalted butter,
1/3 cup vegetable shortening,
3 tbsp sour cream,
3 tbsp ice water,
1 tsp salt.

For the topping
1 lb Jerusalem artichokes peeled,
1 cup table cream,
2 eggs,
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese,
1 tbsp truffle purée,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. The dough can be made in a food processor or by hand. Place flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter (cut into pieces) and shortening and blend with flour until coarse crumbles form.
2. Stir together water and sour cream and add to the flour and make quickly a dough.
3. Place a dough on a working surface dusted with flour and roll into a large rectangle. Fold the rectangle three ways, like a letter page.



4. Roll again the dough into a rectangle and fold again. Repeat it one more time, then wrap it in plastic foil and chill the dough for at least one hour or even over night.
5. Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll out the dough to the size of a large pizza tin, (about 15 inches). Transfer the dough to the tin, pierce with fork and bake for about 20 minutes, until firm but not gold.
6. To make a top slice peeled artichokes on a mandolin slicer and spread them on the pre-baked crust.



7. Mix cream, eggs, truffle purée, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour gently and evenly over the artichokes. Cover with grated cheese.



8. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is set and cheese becomes gold. Serve warm with green salad of your choice.

Brutti ma Boni—Hazelnut Meringue Cookies

Over the holiday season when I cooked and baked a lot, I collected almost a half-pint of leftover egg whites. I had to use them before they became too old, so I started to look for the recipes calling just for whites.

First, I made a batch of basic white meringues, which I make quite often. But I had still a lot of whites left. Looking into many culinary resources I found two other interesting recipes. One was for a soft meringue dessert which I will try some time soon. The other was for easy hazelnut cookies which many Italian cookbooks mention. They seem perfect for this season.

So today I share the recipe for meringue type cookies whose Italian name translates "ugly but good". They are in fact not too attractive looking and I had a hard time to present them in an appetizing way. But they are very crunchy and exceptionally aromatic thanks to toasted hazelnuts, my favorite nuts.

I think they are definitely worth making, especially if you have extra whites to use. As all meringues those cookies made from sugar and whites are on a sweet side but hazelnuts break nicely this sweetness with their powerful aroma. I must admit that those "ugly but good" cookies not only make a wonderful sweet "something" with an afternoon coffee but can be pretty addictive.



Hazelnut Meringue Cookies
(Makes about 16 cookies)

Ingredients:
3 egg whites room temperature,
1 and 1/3 cup shelled and toasted hazelnuts,
3/4 cup granulated sugar,

Preparation:
1. If you have raw hazelnuts toast them in an oven until light brown, let them cool down and, rubbing them on a hard surface or between your fingers, peel off the skins. Chop the nuts roughly on a cutting board.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with a wax paper.
3. Place whites in a bowl of a mixer. Whisk them until foamy. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until almost stiff. Add another 1/4 cup of sugar and beat again. Finally add the third portion and beat the whites for a couple of minutes, until they become stiff and shiny.
4. Fold in chopped hazelnuts into the whites and transfer them into a medium pot. Cook the mixture on a low heat stirring often until it becomes light gold.
5. Place about a tablespoon of meringue mixture on a baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, until they become hard and brownish on top.



Let them cool and enjoy!

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi--Quintessential Comfort Food

This cold weather we have been experiencing for the last couple of weeks inspires me to make comfort food. And in my home comfort food means Italian food. Most likely, it would be a pasta or a risotto dish. But recently, I have been experimenting with gnocchi, which my kids happened to like very much.

Sometimes, I make regular potato gnocchi which are similar to Polish potato dumplings. In Poland we serve them most often with meat sauce. However, when I make them Italian style, I usually make them vegetarian and serve them with cheese, basil or tomato sauce.

Since the potato gnocchi have already been known and well-liked in my home, last week, I decided to introduce my kids to the spinach-ricotta gnocchi. They turned out to be easy and quick to make. The only challenging part of the whole process was to form the very delicate and sticky dough into balls. Adding more flour would have helped but it would also changed the consistency of the dough. And because the dough was made mostly from cheese and spinach with very little flour, the gnocchi came out very delicate.

I used three different Italian recipes which were quite similar in the proportions of the ingredients used, but just differed in the finishing touches. I choose the one calling for pine nuts and Pecorino Romano rather than Parmesan cheese. They were excellent freshly boiled but on the next day my son got them for lunch, fried lightly in butter, which made them slightly crunchy and even more tasty.



Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi

Ingredients:
2 lb spinach leaves,
1 and 1/2 cup Ricotta,
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano,
3 eggs,
6 tbsp all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting,
1/2 cup unsalted butter,
1/4 cup pine nuts,
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Blanch spinach in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain well and cool. When spinach is cool squeeze any extra water and chop it finely.
2. In a large bowl combine spinach, ricotta, slightly beaten eggs, 1/2 cup Pecorino, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Work in quickly about 6 tbsp of flour to make a smooth dough.



3. While preparing the gnocchi, bring to boil a large pot of water with a tbsp of salt. In another, smaller pot melt butter. Add pine nuts and fry them in butter until they turn slightly brown.
4. Dust generously a large cutting board with flour. Take a tbsp of dough and roll it in the flour until a round ball forms.



5. Put the gnocchi one by one in the boiling water. When they start to float on top, turn the heat down to medium and let them boil for 2–3 minutes.
6. Drain the gnocchi. Transfer them to a serving plate, pour butter with pine nuts over them and sprinkle with the remaining Pecorino.