This past weekend was just a preview of the hot summer my mind temporarily forgot occurs every year. Summer in Milan isn’t great, in fact, unless you have a cool haven (preferrably with air conditioning), it can be a bit unbearable. Most of the city empties out at August. In a city like Rome, this is nice because many things stay open because of the tourists and there’s less traffic, but in Milan, most of the city shuts down because tourists are not the primary concern here, and it feels quite deserted. But it becomes a bit of your own private Milano if you are self-sustaining (and have access to a supermarket).

So with the heat returning and my bed cover folded and put away for a few months, I need a cooler treat…and it’s time for Sugar High Friday #31 – Neutral Territory, shades of white! Though I recently made Fresh Strawberry Semifreddo, I wanted to revisit creamy.

I thought….pears, and ricotta. With a twist. Why not throw some honey in there, too, to sweeten things up?

I recently stumbled on a shop of Bee Keepers / Honey Harvesters group called Gruppo Apicoltori Riuniti (site in Italian) and their shop is a gold mine of honey and pollen-based products (no website). Though it was tiny, I didn’t have enough time (or money) to really delve deep into their shelves. I bought a few small jars of different types of honey (single-origin from orange flowers, eucalyptus, cherry, acacia) and some honey-lemon drops that reminded me of the ones my grandfather used to crunch. I can’t wait to go back there!

Baked Honey Pears with Ricotta Cream

2 T. honey
2 t. sugar
250g ricotta
4-5 T. whipping cream

Whip the whipping cream with the sugar first, and mix in the honey and ricotta. I chose to get a smooth cream so I mixed it well. Taste often and well to adjust for your own preferences. Depending on the freshness of the ricotta, you can decide how much you want it to take the front seat to flavor, adding less or more honey. Set to chill in refrigerator for an hour.

3-4 pears
Honey
Cinnamon

Slice the pears in half and core them. Place them cut side up in a baking pan. At this point, you can add butter and/honey and/or cinnamon to the pears. I drizzled on some honey and sprinkled some cinnammon with a sliver of butter. Cook at 375F/190C for 30-45 minutes, or until pears are tender. Take out and let cool. Slice the pear half into slices and pair it with the chilled ricotta cream. Drizzle additional honey if desired.

In keeping with the summer theme and keeping cool, you could serve the Ricotta Cream with fresh pears and I think it tastes just as good as with the baked pears. In fact, I know, since I was experimenting!! Ah, cool summer!

Gruppo Apicoltori Riuniti http://www.garmiele.com/home/
P.LE LAGOSTA 2 – MILANO – Tel 02 66804273

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I participated in this month’s Sugar High Friday which is being hosted by David Lebovitz (who was also the European host for the Menu for Hope, if you remember).

The theme this month is Chocolate by Brand. I was pretty excited because I knew it would be a great opportunity to learn from other bloggers about some specific brands of chocolate that I’d probably never heard of or tried.

And then, of course, I’d be forced to go out and seek them.

I decided on the brand of chocolate I would use before the recipe. These palline di cioccolato, little chocolate balls are super nutty, mascarpone laced delights made with fair-trade chocolate from AltroMercato, an Italian consortium providing fair-trade goods including fabrics, clothing and foodstuffs. They have shops all over Italy and most supermarkets carry a small fair trade section (equo solidale in Italian) from AltroMercato.

I used the fair trade cocoa from AltroMercato and I devised a way to include what is quickly becoming my favorite chocolate – the relatively new fair trade chocolate from Modica, Sicily called Quetzal, which is also sold by AltroMercato. What’s so special about it?

Chocolate from Modica has a rough texture and is oh, so delicious.

Chocolate from Modica is made the way the Aztecs made it (the recipe was brought back to Italy by the Spanish) with heated lava stones (see: Mt. Etna in Sicily) and kept at a low(er) temperature so that the sugar crystals don’t melt in completely with the cacao, which results in that grainy, crumbly texture.

I haven’t found much written about it in English, in fact the page on Modica Cioccolato in Wikipedia is written in Italian. Another source is my fellow expat Gia’s post on Modica Chocolate.

The fair trade Modica chocolate is available in several flavors – black tea, hot pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger and coffee. I’m having a tough time deciding my favorite, but I think cinnamon has pulled ahead of the others. The fact that the chocolate isn’t smooth means that the chocolate taste hits you first, then the secondary flavor – fresh cinnamon, earthy hot pepper or tart ginger – and the sugary crystals are the last to go.

Palline di Cioccolato (Little Chocolate Balls)

• 250g biscotti secchi (“dry” biscuits/cookies – think animal crackers)
• 250g mascarpone
• 250g hazelnuts
• 200g (white) sugar
• 75-125g cacao (start with 75g)
• Vanillina (2.5 packets = 1 package for every 100g of ingredients) or 1-2t. vanilla extract
• Liquor – a few splashes of a liquor of your choice like rum, Baileys, Kahlua

Separately, blend the nuts, biscuits and sugar to a fine and similar size. They don’t need to be super-smooth (though the nuts should be a rough butter) as a bit of texture really adds something. In a bowl, mix the nuts, biscuits, cacao and sugar together well and add the mascarpone and vanilla. Mix with a spoon and then with hands to mix well. Add the liquor at the very end and mix well, add other ingredients to taste if necessary.

Form little balls that can then be rolled in coconut, chocolate-mixed sprinkles, or dipped in chocolate, or eaten plain. Leave in the fridge to set up.

Note: I had to add more cocoa to this mixture as I think the free-trade cocoa was a bit milder than the recipe called for – you can taste often and adjust.

I used coconut and Modica chocolate (coffee flavor) as my rolling ingredients this time around. Next time, I would like to experiment with these – using cane sugar instead of white, almonds or peanuts instead of hazelnuts, and maybe even filling them – Nutella Day, anyone???

Also, “biscotti secchi” may give some people problems but they are widely available in Italy as sweet “cookies”/crackers that are made with little to no fat and ready to be dipped in your morning coffee. I thought the best American equivalent was Animal crackers – anyone else have a better way to describe-identify them??

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