Italian Stuffed Pastries from the Marches

Ingredients

Method

• n the ranks of Italian filled sweet pastries the piconi marchigiani have a place of their own as dessert, breakfast food and treat for afternoon tea. In some versions the ricotta used for the filling is flavored with a little rum.
• RECIPE INGREDIENTS
• For Pastry:
• 4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 cup butter; softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• Grated zest of lemon
• For Filling:
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cup rum
• 3 oz semisweet dark chocolate, grated
• 3 oz shelled almonds, ground
• 1 lb ricotta cheese
• DIRECTIONS
• FOR PASTRY: Heap the flour on a board and make a well in the center. Put in the egg yolks, butter, sugar and a little lemon zest. Knead quickly to obtain medium-soft dough. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
• FOR FILLING: In a bowl, beat the egg yolks (reserving a little for brushing the pastries), sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, rum, chocolate and almonds into the ricotta. The mixture should be thick.
• Roll the dough out thinly. Cut into 3 in circles. Put 1 teaspoon of the filling in the center of each circle and fold the dough over into a half-moon shape, pressing with your fingers to seal the edges well. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Put the pastries onto a buttered baking sheet and brush them with the reserved beaten egg. Bake in the oven until a toothpick inserted into one of them comes out dry, about 20 minutes.

Notes

• SOURCE: The Italian Gourmet