Quick & Creamy Pine Nut Pasta Sauce

This is no alfredo sauce!! This quick and creamy (yet light enough for a hot summer day) pine nut sauce pairs perfectly with homemade pasta. After all the hard work of rolling your dough and making ravioli or cavatelli (or orecchieti, etc.) why drown your delicate pasta in a rich heavy sauce?!

Quick Pine Nut Pasta Sauce
Serves 6

handful of pine nuts (about 100 g or 4 oz) - you don’t have to use pine nuts, any nut of your choice
4 glugs of extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic
150 ml or ⅔ cup of cream
small handful (about 30 g or ¼ cup) of grated parmesan
salt & pepper
pinch of nutmeg

Preperation
In a blender or with an immersion blender puree the cream, salt & pepper, nuts, nutmeg & cheese until its thick and mostly smooth.

In a pan on low flame, heat oil. Place in garlic glove browning on all sides. Once the pasta is cooked, strain the cooked pasta into the pan. Remove the pan from heat and pour cream mixture over. Toss and adjust the consistency with pasta water and taste.  Place into serving dish and top with a few extra pine nuts.

Rustic Apple and Pine Nut Roll with White Wine & Olive Oil Dough

If you like to cook/bake with wine, olive oil & sambuca - this is the dessert for you!

A favorite dessert at our farmhouse is la rocciata - a rustic apple roll stuffed with pine nuts, walnuts, cinnamon & golden raisins. Don't me mislead - the translation (the rock) has little to do with the consistency of the dough (as it is actually very light & flaky) but more to do with the word for 'round' in dialect. It is very similar to a strudel (and may even originate from it)-but better!

La rocciata may be most well known as a dish from our neighbors in Umbria. (Here's a fun fact- if you look across the 'street' from our farmhouse there is literally an island of Umbria in our front yard & castle ruins from a thousand years ago!) And since we love to share the little known recipes of our area, we'll let it slide this isn't traditionally known as Marchigiano - because it's just so delicious & simple! (Don't let the long ingredient list turn you off - half of it you just toss into the food processor.)

To really enjoy this spicy flaky treat buy a bottle of nocino (walnut liquor) or vin santo (wine of the saints or holy wine) & dunk your pieces in this woody-smokey dessert wine.

La Rocciata
Rustic Apple Roll with Pine Nuts

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 green apples, peeled, cored & chopped (cut to about the same size as the raisins)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cut pine nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons Sambuca, anisette or brandy
1 egg, beaten

Mix oil & wine in a bowl
Pulse the flour, sugar & salt in a food processor. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time. Pulse. Add butter. pulse until in tiny pieces.
With motor on, add oil & mix until dough forms.
Turn out dough & kneed for about 2 minutes until smooth, adding a little flour if needed.
Wrap in plastic & refrigerate for 1 hour
Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit or 185 Celsius

Toss apples, nuts, sugar, raisins, spices & liquor in a bowl.
Divide dough into 4 equal pieces.
Roll dough between parchment to form 4 12x8 rectangles. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Return the dough to a lightly floured surface. Spoon a cup of the apple filling onto each rectagnle in a thick stripe about 1/2 inch up from along the edge. Roll up the pastry to enclose the filling, pressing the seams to seal. Transfer the rolls to a large cookie sheet, seam sides down & brush the tops with the beaten egg.
Bake until golden brown - about 35 - 40 minutes.
Serve warm & cut in half or into chunks.

Pear & Pine Nut Salad with Honey Vinaigrette

Rosy cheeked, angelica pears, native to the Metauro Valley are found in the markets throughout autumn in our area of Le Marche. One of my favorite ways to use these sweet small pears is tossing them with pine nuts, parmesan and a sweet honey lemon vinaigrette - creating an irresistible salad!

Pear & Pine Nut Salad with Honey Vinaigrette Recipe

Insalata di pera e pinoli

Ingredients:

1 small head of soft leafed lettuce, cut, washed & dry
2  small pears, cubed
100 gr pine nuts, toasted
juice of half a lemon
honey
extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan

Method:

In a bowl, juice the lemon with a spoonful of good honey. As you stir drizzle in olive oil approximately twice the olive oil than lemon juice.

Give it a taste - if its too olive oily- give it a squeeze of lemon, like wise in the reverse order. Set aside.  Toss lettuce with half the pears and pine nuts and the dressing add a crack of pepper and sprinkle of salt. Once in serving bowl, top with the rest of the pine nuts and pears and shaved parmesan.

La Rocciata: Rustic Apple Roll with Pine Nuts, Cinnamon & Sambuca

If you like to cook/bake with wine, olive oil & sambuca - this is the dessert for you!

A favorite fall/winter dessert at our farmhouse is la rocciata - a rustic apple roll stuffed with pine nuts, walnuts, cinnamon & golden raisins. Don't me mislead - the translation (the rock) has little to do with the consistency of the dough (as it is actually very light & flaky) but more to do with the word for 'round' in dialect. It is very similar to a strudel (and may even originate from it)-but better!

La rocciata may be most well known as a dish from our neighbors in Umbria. (Here's a fun fact- if you look across the 'street' from our farmhouse there is literally an island of Umbria in our front yard!) And since we love to share the little know recipes of our area, we'll let it slide this isn't traditionally known as Marchigiano - because it's just so delicious & simple! (Don't let the long ingredient list turn you off - half of it you just toss into the food processor.)

To really enjoy this spicy flaky treat buy a bottle of vin santo (wine of the saints or holy wine) & dunk your pieces in this rich woody-smokey dessert wine.

La Rocciata
Rustic Apple Roll with Pine Nuts

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 green apples, peeled, cored & chopped (cut to about the same size as the raisins)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cut pine nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons Sambuca, anisette or brandy
1 egg, beaten

Mix oil & wine in a bowl
Pulse the flour, sugar & salt in a food processor. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time. Pulse. Add butter. pulse until in tiny pieces.
With motor on, add oil & mix until dough forms.
Turn out dough & kneed for about 2 minutes until smooth, adding a little flour if needed.
Wrap in plastic & refrigerate for 1 hour
Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit or 185 Celsius

Toss apples, nuts, sugar, raisins, spices & liquor in a bowl.
Divide dough into 4 equal pieces.
Roll dough between parchment to form 4 12x8 rectangles. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Return the dough to a lightly floured surface. Spoon a cup of the apple filling onto each rectagnle in a thick stripe about 1/2 inch up from along the edge. Roll up the pastry to enclose the filling, pressing the seams to seal. Transfer the rolls to a large cookie sheet, seam sides down & brush the tops with the beaten egg.
Bake until golden brown - about 35 - 40 minutes.
Serve warm & cut in half or into chunks.