2022 Giro d’Italia - Stage 17: Ponte di Legno to Lavarone.
What a morning! It’s been quite the day and my workday hasn’t even started yet. Peel back of the Mangia McCann curtain: typically these stage-specific dishes are cooked and photographed at least 2-3 days before the stage and then I type up the summary as I watch coverage of the Giro in the early morning hours. Today, due to my apprehensions surrounding baking, the fact I couldn’t find amaretti cookies at the store this weekend, a busy social and kids school/sports schedule, and work being nuts, I actually made today’s dish and wrote up the summary all before my workday started.
On top of that, I got to hear Sir Bradley Wiggins talk about a rider trying to take a relief break by saying the rider was struggling to find his “tinky-winky”...oh wait, it gets better…no sooner than I had put these delicate desserts into the oven, I check back on the mountainous coverage of the day’s stage and as the riders hit a gentle decline, a rider whipped out his “tinky-winky” and started spraying down the side of the mountain. Here I thought my early morning pastry dough mishap would be the nuttiest part of my day…have I mentioned it’s not even 9 am yet?
Anyway, the riders are in the Trentino-South Tyrol region in NE Italy, so I made a traditional dessert, a pear and amaretti tart. As mentioned above, I couldn’t find amaretti cookies this weekend so I made some of those cookies a few days ago…can’t even really remember what day that was at this point. But, that recipe will be coming for you down-the-road in case you run into the same procurement problem I did. I altered my source recipe a bit because the dough didn’t come together as planned and I figured out how to make it work…because I had no choice waiting until the last minute. So, this is now my recipe!
This looks slightly extravagant and difficult, but I assure you, you’re non-baking friend here mastered it. It just takes a little time! The result it like a butter cookie with a little fruit, almandine from the amaretti, a little fruity from the apricot and pear. This goes perfect with the Vin Santo del Chianti, a dessert wine, which is like a light apple brandy mixed with wine. Everything is light, subtle, and balanced! Now, I want to ensure my co-workers (including those who I have a call with in about 15 minutes): I DID NOT drink any of the paired vin santo in the photo below…even though it would be understood if I had, given this odd morning. That will wait until tonight!
ok...I may have had a glass of Vin Santo before work...shh.
Pear and Amaretti Tarts
6 tartlet pans ~3” around
Stick of butter, at room temperature + 1 tbsp for greasing
2 cups flour + more for dusting
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs + 1 yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
~⅔ cup superfine sugar
2 tbsp plain breadcrumbs
4 amaretti cookies
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
1 oz pine nuts
2 tbsp apricot preserves
¼ cup whole milk
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, add a pinch of salt and reserve.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk, briefly combine the stick of butter, eggs + yolk, vanilla, and ½ cup of the sugar. Then, start pouring in the sifted flour mixture and process until combined. You may need to briefly work the dough, with your hands, to ensure cohesiveness. Portion out ⅓ of the dough mass and roll the dough portions, with your hands, into separate balls and reserve.
Preheat the oven to 350. Meanwhile, butter the tartlet pans with the tablespoon of butter, dust them with a little flour, followed by bread crumbs, tipping out the excess of each.
Then, prepare the pear and reserve. Using a mini prep, process the cookies into crumbs and pour into a bowl. Then, place the pine nuts and a rough 2 teaspoons of the sugar into the mini prep and process until finely ground and place in another bowl.
Dust a work surface with some flour and roll the large dough ball out into a round, about a ½-inch thick. Using a ~2.75” biscuit cutter, cut out 6 rounds of the dough. Place the dough rounds into the prepared tartlet pans, pressing down onto the bottom and into the fluted crevasses.
Place about a teaspoon of preserves into the bottom of each tartlet. Sprinkle in a heavy pinch of amaretti crumbs and top with some diced pear to fill the majority of the tartlets. Sprinkle with some pine nut-sugar mixture, followed by more amaretti crumbs.
Using the remaining dough from the large ball, cut ¼” wide ~6” long portions segments and run them around the top outer ring of the tartlet pans. Try not to adhere to the pan itself as this will complicate removal after baking. You can, however, cover a portion of the tartlet contents.
Then, roll out the small ball, on a floured surface, to about ¼-inch thick. Cut into ¼” wide strips, about 3” in length, and run them in a cross fashion on top of the tartlets, pressing the ends gently into the dough ring. Place the prepared tartlets onto a sheet pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven and, using a pastry brush, brush the milk onto the pastry, not worrying if some spills into the tart itself. Return the tartlets to the oven and bake for about 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the tarts from the pans, dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve. I’d highly suggest you find some Vin Santo and pair with the dessert. Alternatively, some high quality vanilla ice cream would be great, too!
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Copyright 2022, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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