Italy has all sorts of sweets fall outside the standard categories of pies, puddings and such. Jams, for example, or sweet frittate. So here they are.
This is prickly pear marmalade is easy to prepare, but do be careful if you pick the prickly pears yourself, and wear gloves until you have skinned them. This makes quite a bit of prickly pear marmalade, and is followed by a recipe for prickly pear jam.
Some varieties of Italian winter squash are sizable, and when friends gave us one close to a yard long we started off with squash soup. One can only eat so much squash soup, however. Pouring through cookbooks turned up several other ideas, including squash jam, which gains from the addition of apples and pears. Quite good, in fact, and perfect over toast.
A sweet wine like Moscato is a wonderful addition to any marmalade, especially one made with peaches. You'll want a sparkling Asti here, because it is more delicately flavored than Moscato passito.
This is a little unusual, but a nice fall treat.
Prunes fill the markets in Italy at the end of the summer, and since one can only eat so many, turning them into jam makes perfect sense. This is chunky, and will be nice on toast or over a crostata.
The recipe calls for cantaloupes, which are native to a town in south Italy called Cantalupo, but you could use other melons too, I expect -- honeydew melon might be an especially nice substitution.
Fresh figs are one of the nicest things about late summer. If you caramelize figs, you can carry this bounty into the fall, when they are perfect with cheese, or even with boiled meats. A jar of caramelized figs is also a perfect gift.
Blueberry-Blackberry Jam, or Confettura di Mirtilli e More: An inspired combination, and en excellent excuse to go berry picking in August, when the fruit is at its richest.
Summer Jam, or Confettura d'Estate: How to set summer aside for the winter months! The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make it repeatedly as the season progresses, and it will never be quite the same.
Lemon and Apple Marmalade, or Marmellata di Limoni e Mele: This is quite easy, and quite refreshing.
Fig Marmalade, or Marmellata di Fichi:
Watermelon Marmalade, or Marmellata di Cocomero: There's nothing quite so refreshing as a crisp cool slice of watermelon on a hot day. And this will bring it to mind.
Though chestnuts were once used primarily to keep the peasants alive, good chestnuts are very good and the aristocracy was quite happy to enjoy them, provided they were elegantly prepared. Marrons glacées are quite elegant, and were doubtless very popular at court. The recipe Mr. Vialardi presents looks involved at first glance, but actually involves brief steps over several days after the initial preparation, so it is fairly easy. And a jar of marrons glacées makes a fine gift!
Prune Concentrate, or Cotto di Prugne: A while back I posted a recipe for Cotto di Fichi and Cartellate, the latter being cookies and the former being the fig sauce one dips them into before serving them. Making the cotto is quite involved and one does have to have figs. Dolores very kindly sent in the following, which instead uses prune juice, and is easier as well.
Sapa is Concentrated Grape Must. Saith Artusi: Since its peculiar flavor is necessary in some dishes, sapa, which is none other than a grape syrup, has many uses in the kitchen. It's also always popular with children, who, during the winter, can improvise sherbets with it by mixing it with freshly fallen snow.
Uncle Guerrando's Spirited Figs: A couple of recipes that inevitably appear during our Christmas dinner: Aunt Adriana's stuffed Savoy cabbage leaves and spirited figs. The latter is from Elisabetta's Uncle Guerrando.
Peach Marmalade, or Marmellata di Pesche: A breath of summer in winter!
"Spring, spring is here, life is skittles and life is beer," sang Tom Lehrer (sp?) many years ago, going on to say his favorite activity was poisoning pigeons in the park (which was also the title of the song). To each his own; I much prefer talking long walks unencumbered by a heavy coat. But there's more to do in spring. Cherries flood the markets and it's time to put them to good use. Eating is one of the best, but it's not the only. You can store them in spirits for the winter:
You may be surprised to discover that Italy is one of the world's major kiwi producers, rivaling New Zealand. No surprise that they find their way into jam.
It's no accident that strawberry preserves are tremendously popular. As is often the case, a well-made home made jar of strawberry preserves will be richer and more flavorful than what you can buy in a store. This recipe is drawn from Il Re dei Cuochi, a book published anonymously by Salani in 1885.
This recipe is drawn from Pellegrino Artusi's La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene, the first successful Italian cookbook, which was written in 1891 and is still selling briskly today.
When peaches are at their best and the raspberries are ripening up in the mountains, they're a perfect pair to set aside for the winter!
If you look through old Italian cookbooks you'll realize that almond was by far the most popular flavoring for sweets of all kinds, from cakes through puddings and cookies -- much as vanilla is the most popular flavoring in American desserts. The popularity of almonds comes as no surprise, because there are spectacular stands of almond trees in many parts of the peninsula, and it makes perfect sense to find them here.
This recipe is drawn from Il Re dei Cuochi, which was published anonymously in Florence in 1885. Though the author calls for Regina Claudia plums, tiny very sweet green plums that appear for only a short time in July, you can use almost any good flavorful plum.
Another tasty relish that will work well with boiled meats and similar dishes.
This recipe is drawn from Pellegrino Artusi's La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene, the first successful Italian cookbook, which was written in 1891 and is still selling briskly today.
When Artusi presented a recipe for banana ice cream in 1890 he began by describing bananas, which gives an idea of how exotic they were at the time in Italy. They are common now, as are mangoes (which were unheard of then), but this jam still does have a touch of the exotic about it.
This recipe is drawn from my English translation of Pellegrino Artusi's La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di Mangiar Bene, which was published by Random House as The Art of Eating Well. As Artusi notes, the instructions also work well for peach jam.
This is one of the easiest marmalades to make, because the pectin content of the fruit insures that it will gel.
This is a little unusual by Italian standards -- Artusi doesn't mention it, nor does Ada Boni -- but it is tasty, and a nice accompaniment to boiled meats.
A home recipe for a delightful winter treat.
Delicious holiday treats that also make excellent holiday gifts.
Most
frittate are savory, but here's one to close the meal with!
A tasty frittata with matzos that's an ideal Passover dessert.
