Cialzons

[Adam Balic]

Cialzons

This recipe is from Pasta Around the Mediterranean in the eCGI

Cialzons can be stuffed with a variety of fresh fruit including, pears, apples and plums and/or dried fruit such as prunes, currants or figs. In the case of dried fruit it is often plumped up by gently pre-cooking in red wine. In this recipe I am using quinces, as quinces are not only traditional, but also utterly lovely in appearance, flavour and scent

• Filling:
  
• 2 large quinces
  
• 250 g of fresh ricotta (not UHT, as it is not suitable for this recipe)
  
• 2 tsp of white sugar
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
  
• 1/2 T of very finely chopped fresh marjoram
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• 100 g of sweet butter
  

One recipe of ‘00’ or all-purpose flour Basic Pasta Dough

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C/325F. Prick quince several times with a fork or skewer (to prevent the fruit from bursting), place in a baking dish and bake for one hour or until the fruit is soft. Allow fruit to cool then peel and remove the flesh into a clean bowl. Mash fruit thoughly to produce a fine puree. Weigh fruit, it should weigh 100-150 gm. Mix this pulp with the rest of the filling ingredients. Taste for salt.

2. Roll out pasta sheets as directed and stuff cialzons as directed in steps 4-5 of the Barbajouan recipe.

3. Cook cialzons in boiling, salted water, until they float, about 3-5 minutes. Test one cialzon to make sure that the pasta is cooked. When pasta is cooked, drain and place in a serving bowl. While the pasta is cooking, brown the butter in a clean pan over medium heat. As the butter heats, it will at first foam, then the milk solids will begin to brown. When these are a medium brown colour and smell ‘nutty’ pour over the pasta, carefully mix and serve.

While cialzons are ‘sweet’, rather then ‘savoury’, in modern terms, they traditionally come before the main dish, like most other Italian pasta. I have seen them offered as ‘Dolce’, but I don’t feel that there is any need for that. If one was going to be non-authentic I think that a better way of serving them would be to cook them like pot-stickers, dress them in butter and serve them as a side with roast game such as pheasant or with a roast goose or even turkey.

Keywords: Pasta, eGCI

( RG904 )