Unmistakable in its shape and flavor, the Renetta apple puts everyone in agreement: cooks, doctors and gourmets. In the kitchen it lends itself perfectly to both sweet and savory recipes. Acidulated and with a soft pulp from raw, it maintains an excellent consistency from cooked, giving off sweetness.
But there's more: with its very high concentration of polyphenols, it is considered a real superfood. In 100 grams of Renetta apple there are as many as 212 mg of polyphenols, almost twice that of Granny Smith apples for example. And with the other fruits? There is no race! The same weight of kiwi contains only 54, 38 papaya and 31 banana.

Mela Renetta, Melinda's superfood

What are polyphenols for?

Cells, as we know, grow old. A process that we can not interrupt but that we can slow down. Such as? With anti-oxidants, for example. The best ones are natural ones and they are taken in vegetables and fruit. And in this field, nobody beats the Renetta apple! The test of the nine? By cutting one of these apples you will notice that its pulp blackens faster than other apples. This happens precisely because of the concentration of polyphenols which speed up the oxidation process.
And if it is true that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, two Renetta apples a day guarantee the right daily intake of anti-oxidants, equal to 1 gram. Such as? Here are some ideas to bring them to the table, both in the sweet version and in the savory version, for a complete menu.

Two recipes for a sweet … superfood!

Apple tart with hazelnut crumble

Ingredients

800 g 3 Renetta apples, 350 g flour, 200 g butter plus a little, 120 g granulated sugar, 115 g peeled toasted hazelnuts, 15 g dried biscuits, 3 egg yolks, lemon peel, brown sugar, salt

Method

Knead the flour with the softened butter and a pinch of salt. Chop the hazelnuts in very fine flour and add 100 g to the mixture. Then add the granulated sugar and the egg yolks and knead to obtain a smooth dough. Let it rest covered in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (short pastry). Roll out the pastry, keeping aside a quarter; roll it with a rolling pin about 5 mm thick and line the bottom and the edge of a buttered hinge mold (Ø 26 cm). Trim the edge about 1 cm below the edge. Peel and cores the apples, cut into small pieces and collect them in a bowl; scent with a little grated lemon peel and mix with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Sprinkle the bottom of the cake with the remaining hazelnuts, mixed with the crumbled biscuits. Then fill with the apples and cover the surface with the pastry aside, crumbled or grated with a grater with large holes (crumble). Bake the tart at 180 ° C for about 30 'in the static oven, then for another 15' in a convection oven. Remove the tart and leave it to cool, before draining it. For a super refreshing and delicious snack, serve it with hot chocolate and whipped cream.

Puff pastry with poppy seeds

Ingredients

150 g flour, 50 g butter plus a little, 30 g raisins, 30 g walnut kernels, 2 eggs, 1 apple Renetta Melinda, cinnamon powder, poppy seeds, bread crumbs, brown sugar, salt.

Method

Mix the flour with an egg, the very soft butter, a pinch of salt and about 15 g of water, obtaining a mixture. Work it on the work surface until it becomes homogeneous and elastic. Then let it rest covered with a hot pot for about 40 minutes. Cut the apple into cubes, without peeling, removing the core. Mix it with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 of breadcrumbs, the raisins and the chopped walnut kernels, obtaining the filling of the strudel. Roll out the very thin dough and cut it into a rectangle (30 × 40 cm). Brush it with soft butter and sprinkle with a little 'cinnamon and poppy seeds. Finally, arrange the filling by forming a small leaf on the short side of the rectangle. Roll the dough around the filling and then on itself, doing 3 rounds, in order to obtain the "peeled" effect. Place the roll on a plate covered with baking paper. Brush it with a beaten egg and sprinkle with brown sugar and other poppy seeds. Bake at 160 ° C for 40 minutes.

Origins: the Val di Non PDO

La Renetta is one of the three DOP varieties of Melinda. It grows in Val di Non and Val di Sole, in Trentino, where it finds perfect weather conditions. Thanks to two thousand hours of sunshine a year, the apples that grow in this area have truly unique characteristics, both from an aesthetic point of view and from an organoleptic point of view. La Renetta is a superfood that has no equal to indulge in the kitchen!