Puff pastry with strawberries and blueberries – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients for 8 people

There puff pastry with strawberries and blueberries of Salt and pepper it is an irresistible fruit dessert! With a game of textures, flavors and aromas that are well balanced with each other: a crunchy note, a soft, sweet and fragrant note given by cinnamon cream and the slightly acidulous note of fresh forest fruit. It is therefore a dessert so tempting as it is light and refined, perfect to serve after a rich and important lunch or to elegantly close a dinner with friends.

Among the most popular cakes to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and many other occasions, in addition to the simpler ones, made with the classic base of pan di Spain, There is certainly one, always appreciated by all: the a thousand leaves! The original French recipe, known in the rest of Europe as Napoleon, is made with crispy sheets of pasta puff pastry superimposed and combined with a soft and velvety cream, with or without fruit. For the a thousand leaves with strawberries and blueberries, Salt and pepper has chosen to make the puff pastries with the phyllo pasta, a type of pasta of Greek origin, very light, from which very thin sheets are obtained which, generally, are brushed with oil or melted butter, overlapped and then baked in the oven to make them crispy and golden. Fillo dough has an almost neutral taste, so it is easy to combine with sweet or savory ingredients; often, it is used in the kitchen to prepare both tasty and scenic desserts baskets, tantalizing appetizers is savory pies. You can buy it ready-made in rectangular sheets, fresh or frozen.

How to prepare the puff pastry with strawberries and blueberries

1) To prepare the puff pastry with strawberries and blueberries lay 8 sheets of wire pasta on a damp cloth and cover them with another damp cloth: this serves to not let the pasta dry. Then melt the butter in a saucepan.

2) Cut each single sheet in half lengthwise and from each half get 4 rectangles; brush them well with the melted butter and overlap them: in the end you will have to get 16 puff pastry from 4 rectangles each. Arrange 8 sheets on one oven plate covered with a sheet of parchment paper e cuocile in oven hot for 10 minutes to 200 ° C until they are golden. Take it out and gently place the sheets on a sheet of absorbent paper. Do this with the other half of the sheets.

3) In the meantime, slice the strawberries washed; ask i blueberries washed in a bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice and sprinkle with it icing sugar. Mix them and leave them macerate for at least 15 minutes.

4) Prepare the cream mounting the eggs with the sugar and the flour until the ingredients are well blended. Boil the milk with the cinnamon and the vanillin, turn off and let it cool down. Then pour it into the egg cream, a little at a time and always stirring constantly.

5) Transfer everything to the pot in which you boiled the milk and place it on the fire. Cook the cream without bringing it to a boil to keep it from going crazy. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the cream into a bowl, filtering it through a sieve, then let it cool, stirring often.

6) At this point, gently divide the pastry rectangles in half, horizontally. Compose in layers the a thousand leaves in individual saucers: sprinkle 3 of the layers of dough obtained with a little cream, strawberry and blueberry slices, cover with a fourth layer of pastry, sprinkle with icing sugar and decorate the puff pastry with strawberries and blueberries with other fruit.

April expenditure: what to put in the cart – Italian Cuisine

Here are all the products you can't miss in your shopping cart this month, from seasonal vegetables to eggs, not forgetting the chocolate ones

It is now official: it's spring, although the weather could still occasionally play some trick with lower temperatures or sudden rains. Market stalls are starting to fill up with colors and from the point of view of nutrition this is the right month for prepare for summer (Easter parties aside) and ask remedy for winter excesses. Our body will benefit from fresh fruit and vegetables to face the ever rising temperatures in the coming months and for prepare the skin for sun exposure. April is also the right month for a light detox, after having perhaps exaggerated with rich meats and seasonings during the winter: let's eat the bitter herbs, asparagus and artichokes.

The expense of April from the greengrocer

Finally they start being in season le strawberries, even though they are now on the market since February. Sodas and intense and uniform color, those purchased in April should however be much more tasty. Keep your eyes open for the medlar – rich in fiber, mineral salts and vitamin A – they are widespread in some areas of the peninsula, while they are almost unknown in others. Always among the forgotten fruits, put in the basket also the rhubarb, if you are lucky enough to find it. Among the spring fruits there are also kiwi and grapefruit, while oranges, lemons, apples and pears are definitely at the end of the season (and then … who still wants it after having eaten them all winter?).

The fruit basket

Asparagus and artichokes, as already said, they cannot be missing in the expenditure of April: purifying and draining they are definitely detox foods, especially for the liver.
Leeks and spring onions this month they will replace the onion in sauté, omelettes and recipes, while the salads will be enriched with carrots, broad beans, radishes, spinach and lettuce. Get even with agretti, which are seen for a few weeks a year, and the chicory, perhaps one of the most famous and widespread bitter herbs (but then there are also the puntarelle, catalonia, ribs, watercress, herbs, hops and nettle, endive and rocket).

April Fool

Did you know that actually our seas are more fish in spring and summer? Take advantage of these seasons to find great deals on anchovies, nasaello, snapper, swordfish, sardines, tuna, mullet, mackerel, mullet, sole, monkfish, squid.

Eggs, not just chocolate

Store the Easter eggs we go hunting for real eggs! There egg production is affected by light solar: the hens lay, therefore, more eggs from April to September. If you usually stock up on this food from a trusted farmer, buy it, he will have more than usual (and that's why Easter recipes include a large number of eggs).

10 recipes and some tips for cooking asparagus – Italian Cuisine

You can cook them in boiling water and serve for example with eggs and salmon or you can also eat them raw in salads. A seasonal vegetable with many properties, including antidepressants

It's time to asparagus. Here are some tips to choose, clean and cook them.

The term asparagus or asparagus comes from the Greek aspharagos and from the Persian asparagus Cimadolmo, or sprout and indica both the entire plant and the shoots of the plant.
THE'Asparagus officinalis it belongs to the Liliaceae family and has a long history.
It's a plant always green from the needle-shaped leaves widespread in central and southern Europe since ancient times.

It is a dioecious species, that is, there are both female and male specimens. The fruits produced by the female plants are small red berries containing black seeds. The plant is equipped with rhizomes growing under the ground forming a lattice and from them the shoots or the edible part of the plant depart. If not collected, stems with variable lengths from 1 to 1.5 m depart from the shoots and must be collected when they have not reached a consistency that is too hard.
There different varieties of asparagus. White, purple or green ones are commercially available, although the most consumed are the green ones, typical of early spring.

Properties of asparagus

These vegetables really are low in calories. They bring about 25 calories per 100 grams and contain a lot of fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B and mineral salts, including calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Eating 100 grams of asparagus takes about 75% of the daily amount needed folic acid, very important substance for the multiplication of the cells of the body and for the synthesis of new proteins. Asparagus, especially the wild ones, are rich in energy substances and have always been considered powerful aphrodisiacs.

Why eat asparagus?

I'm excellent diuretics and fight water retention and cellulite.
They have function antidepressant, probably due to their detoxifying and diuretic action, and they are good for mood.
Do not eat too many if you suffer from kidney problems, cystitis and kidney stones, because they contain uric acid that can increase the infection already in place.

How to choose asparagus?

Fresh ones they are hard, do not bend, but break. They should not appear woody and dull and dark brown or too light in color. Especially check the asparagus that are in the center of the bunch that generally deteriorate first.

How do you cook asparagus?

Asparagus is very versatile in the kitchen. They are excellent raw and added to the salad, but also simply sautéed in the pan or in the oven or steamed.
That steam is a very valid cooking from a nutritional point of view.
To prepare them, first of all remove the part of the most external and woody stem with a potato peeler break the asparagus at the breaking point. Simply fold it in the middle and it will break by itself. We must not cut it with a knife.
To cook them in boiling water collect them in a bunch and tie them with a kitchen string, then place them in a tall pot full of boiling water, letting the tips stay out of the water and cook only with the heat of steam. In 10 minutes they are ready to be used in other recipes or simply dressed with oil, lemon salt.

Asparagus with egg

The most famous recipe with asparagus comes from northern Italy and is very easy and very tasty.
Cook the aspargi in boiling water.
Place them whole on a plate and place one on top of it Freshly cooked fried egg in butter or a poached egg. Complete with plenty of grated Parmesan and ground pepper. For a gourmet version you can add truffle flakes.