THE FRIDAY NIGHT RECIPE: PISTACHIO CREAM TART

Oh my! Last Friday I missed the first part of the Fiesta Friday party, I had really few time – not a bit news, right? Do you think I could join now? Am I in time for desserts? 😉
I was tired of the simple fruits tart, as well as the chocolate and the Nutella ones: so, I wanted to try a Pistachio Nutella, a special product that is not so easy to find in Northern Italy. The consistency is like the Nutella, but this cream has a light green colour and a delicate sweet taste of pistachio. Really yummy!One of my colleagues brought me from Sicily. For this special edition of Fiesta Friday, I prepared a Pistachio Cream Tart with dark chocolate chips and whipped cream. I found it just delicious to eat. Here’s the recipe:

FOR THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY (PASTAFROLLA)

INGREDIENTS:

– Flour 00: 250 gr
– Butter: 125 gr
– Powdered sugar: 100 gr
– Eggs: (yolk): 2 or 3 if small
– a pinch of salt
– a hint of vanillin

FOR THE FILLING:

– 250 ml cream to whip
– dark chocolate chips
– 250 gr pistachio nutella cream

PREPARATION:

The preparation of the shortcrust pastry starts with a process called “sabbiatura”: first of all sift the flour, and put it in the mixer, together with the cold butter chopped in cubes, and a pinch of salt. Blend the ingredients till you’ll obtain a sandy-like and floury mixture, then transfer it on a floury pastry board. Now you could add the powdered sugar. (always sifted before), and the vanillin.
Make a well in the centre of the flour, then pour in the center the 2-3 egg yolks and the grated lemon peel; start to amalgamate with a fork till the egg yolk will absorb the flour, then follow kneading powerfully till you’ll obtain a compact and elastic dough. Shape a block and wrap it into the plastic wrap, then put it in the fridge for 30 minutes before using it. Spread out the dough on a pastry board, then transfer it in a baking tray covered with wax paper. Riddle with holes the dough, fill the tart with dry beans and then cook it in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180° C. When the borders are golden, remove the beans and then replace the tart in the oven, and cook again for other 20 minutes.

You could also cook the Pistachio Nutella, but I prefer it cold in the filling, it’s more creamy; when the shortcrust tart is ready, fill it with the pistachio cream mixed with the dark chocolate chips, and put the tart in the fridge for a while.

Then, you could start prepare the whipped cream: be careful to use a cold bowl and cold whisks; put the cream in the bowl together with the powdered sugar and start mixing at maximum speed, always in the same direction. When the whipped cream is ready and fluffy, you could decorate the tart on the top. When you cut it, you’ll have three coloured layers. Pretty, isn’t it?
Put the tart in the fridge for at least two hours before serving.

Advertisement

LONDON TRIP

Hello! We’re just back from a short holiday in London. There are always so many things to do, to see, to … eat in London! it’s just a stimulating big city. I love strolling between the streets, the quartiers. Looking at the cafès, searching for a new hidden corner. I don’t want to simply make a list of the things you could see visiting London. This time I’ll show you simply our improvised itineraries, to show you how pleasant could be not to follow a guide description.

We stayed in a fine hotel near King’s Cross-St. Pancras. It’s not the City, but I think it’s a fine area, with many ethnic restaurants, so in the evening we had always a great choice of places for dinner. Right when you exit from the tube, you can see the majestic buildings of St. Pancras Railway Station, widely known for its Victorian architecture. It really stands out ’cause of the clock tower of the Midland Grand Hotel.

The St Pancras area of the London Borough of Camden stands between the British Library, King’s Cross station and the Regent’s Canal.The area is in the northern part of the city, reaching from Holborn and Bloomsbury in the south, to Hampstead Heath in the north. Neighbouring areas are the City of Westminster and the City of London to the south.I really enjoyed walking in the streets of Camden, it’s a beautiful peaceful district. We took a lot of street photos while going to Piccadilly.

I’m not telling you about Camdem Town, Camdem Lock Market, and all the most famous places in the area. It’s beautiful to visit them, but I was really fascinated while tooking promenades around our hotel, looking at the beautiful buildings, at the greengrocers, at the barber shops. At the old pedestrian crossings. At the cabs. At the double-decker bus.

I could write a neverending list of the things you should experience in London. Our journey starts here, in the Inner London. And you? What do you think of London? What’s your experience about this city? Looking forward to publish all the photos I took walking for kilometers in few days!Cris

PEOPLE FROM BOAVISTA

I promised myself to speak about the people we met in Boavista, because we found really valuable persons during our stay.I have beautiful memories of the people we met, which are always a fundamental part of a travel. I always thought that the others could enrich us, our point of view, our values. People from Boavista nowadays are about 14.000: so, you can see that is not really much populated. They have a motto: “No stress”: this is the answer of the locals when you may have any kind of problem: in Caboverde life flow smoothly, peacefully, without laborious rhythm. They’re used to many hitches, for example regarding transports, impassable streets, shops provisionally closed. I must say that in Boavista there’s no hospital, only a doctor on call and an only pharmacy in Sal Rei.

In Boavista everyone knows everybody else well, and often they help each other in the small things of everyday; they share happily food, music, car lifts, and so on. On Sunday there are small groups along the harbour in Sal Rei playing ouril, their typical game: the name cames probably from the tree whose seeds are used to play. Basically it consists in moving continuosly the seeds anticlockwise in the bowls curved in the wooden panel, until one player wins the seeds of the other. (when there is a certain number of seeds in the same bowl)

Life, even with some deprivation on all that daily sort of things, seems a matter of simplicity: they always smile, and children are always playing around in the streets. Children are just beautiful: the little girls, especially, have always the hair gathered in coloured tiny braids, and they  wear gaudy clothes – like the colours of some home facades. They were curious about us, and our belongings. It’s difficult not to try to keep contact with them, and also to help them, in someway.

And the elders, with their skin consumed by the sun, the deep wrinkles on their face, and so expressive gazes. These wise old men which went out from their home after lunch, to see us passing by, taking photos, speaking a strange language. They are grateful for what they have, and they share it with dignity: they don’t need all the useless things that continuously surround us. Aware or not about their belongings, they miss nothing because “they do with what they’ve got”.

Right now i’m thinking at one of our guides, Eliseo, which is born and grew up in Boavista, and have a numerous family: one day, returning together by car at our hotel, we asked him if he had never thought of going anywhere else, to see other places in the world. He answered to us: ” Yeah, i thought about it, and some years ago I met a girl who proposed to me to go with her in Italy. But, afterall, I love my country and the people who live here. I know everyone here, and I think that Boavista is a beautiful place to stay, we have the duty to preserve our island. I never had any doubts about wanting to stay: it’s the rest of the world that comes to visit us.”

And Eliseo is right: many people who visit Boavista once, go back in the years, or they end up settling. We met also some italians, which opened commercial activities – restaurants, excursions, ecc…- and a couple of them will get citizenship soon, because they’re in Boavista from more than 10-15 years, working for the community and to safeguard turtles and rare animals. They’re just integrated in society.

“People who travel without meeting the others, are not traveling, they’re just moving.” (Alexandra David-Néel)