Saturday
afternoon, out of work. Day from the leaden sky , few people walking. What to
do? Easy answer, I’ll use my kitchen for a sort of daily trip. Thinking about Puglia
, south of Italy, I decided to prepare a typical Christmas sweet: the cartellate
(or carteddate ). I've tasted them a long time ago, but their flavor of is not easy to forget . The
preparation takes quite a long time
because everything has to be done at home.
Ingredients
are the big problem because in the area where I live some of them are not
available in normal shops. There are several recipes for the pastry both with
or without eggs. I’ve tried the one with flour, yeast, white wine and no eggs. All
the recipes I’ve found agree about one single step: the pastries have to be fully immerged in a
syrup called “cooked wine”. That's the product that makes cartellate so special.
Two are the versions: the first one is made
of figs , but as the harvest
season is past, I therefore choose to prepare the syrup according to the second version made from wine grapes. The
grapes of Puglia is definitely another quality, but I hope I have made an appropriate choice
with Barbera grapes harvested in these days.
The
cartellate had to rest for one night,
then I cooked them in oil and finally
they were soaked in the special syrup.
Result: delicious!!
Cartellate are crisp and the flavor is good ... yum ! W Puglia and its gastronomy,
my Saturday inspiration!
