Monday, December 24, 2007

Torta al vino!

After you host a wine and cheese tasting party you're left with a lot of half-filled bottles and small pieces of cheese. Now, cheese is good for a long time and in any case, it's not hard to come up with delicious recipes that can use all those tiny pieces. But what do you do with 6 half bottles of wine, if you're only two and usually don't really drink very much? So, I'm looking for unusual recipes that involve the use of wine. Of course I use some wine to cook a few vegetables (and I'll use some for the meat I'm cooking on Christmas). But I'd love to use for desserts! I already made the apples with wine dish, so I want to try something different. So in the next few posts you'll see a few ways I found to use wine in desserts!
The first idea comes from a food blog event! Did you ever look at last month's 'Waiter there's something in my...' roundup? It was about 'topless tarts', and one of them was a wine tart, presented by Betsy at 'I was born a woman'. I had noticed that tart when I first found it on the roundup, and it just came back to my mind these 'winey' days. :) So, I tried it!

Torta al vino / Wine tart

I won't write the whole recipe because I basically followed Betsy's, and you can find hers here. My only modifications were: using 50 g of almonds instead of 25 g (I love almonds) in the crust, and using 100 ml milk + 2 tbsp ricotta cheese for the filling instead of 100 ml cream (to make it lighter and also because I had no cream :) ). Also, since I have no patience, I used the dough for the crust right away and didn't wait overnight. It came out well in any case. I served it with a touch of whipped cream mixed with sliced almonds, to recall the almonds in the crust.
It was really good! I was very happy of it. The crust was delicious and the filling was also very pleasant. I was thinking that if I make it again, I may boil the wine with cloves and a cinnamon stick before using it, to increase the spiciness of the filling. But.. it's really worth trying! It's very easy to make, too. Thanks a lot, Betsy! And thanks to Jeanne too, for organizing this great 'topless tart' event!

7 comments:

Amanda said...

Ooh, there are lots of things you can do with leftover wine! Try poaching some apples or pears in wine with some spices--like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom... whatever you love.

Also try this Chocolate Merlot Cake. You can use any red wine for it--and it is unbelievably delicious. I skip the wine jelly altogether and bake in a bundt/tube pan and just top with powdered sugar or creme anglaise.

Of course you can make marinades and dress meat/poultry and put in the freezer. As you thaw your meat that marinade will tenderize... yum!

Don't forget making ice cubes with leftover wine--then you can pop them into any sauce or gravy as needed.

Or you could try making your own wine vinegar... could be an interesting experiment.

Namratha said...

Oh wow, looks delicious Marta, now I have a reason to buy wine, though I don't drink!! :)

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Oh, yummy! That tart looks gorgeous! Here, in Switzerland, we also make such tarts (white and red)...

Happy New Year 2008!

Cheers,

Rosa

chemcookit said...

Mrs. W - thanks a lot for the suggestions! I will definitely try the chocolate merlot cake. :) I am curious about the ice cubes, though: should not wine be alcoholic enough not to freeze?

Namratha - thanks!! let me know if you try it

Rosa - wow! Must be really good with white wine too!

Laurie Constantino said...

Marta, this looks absolutely delicious and I'm with you -- the more almonds the better!

Amanda said...

Wine does freeze; there isn't enough alcohol content, like there is in spirits such as vodka.

BetsyDrake said...

Wow, Marta! I'm blushing! Thank you for trying my recipe :-)