Dinner for Emily

My sweet friend Emily went on a trip to Italy this past Spring and dutifully documented everything she ate just for me. She even brought back pesto and cheese for me, but there was a catch. She said I could only have them if I cooked Italian food for her, a deal that seemed to be completely in my favor. Last night we had a great time eating ravioli with a ricotta garlic filling in a chicken stock reduction, bruschetta with pesto, tomatoes, and asiago cheese, and peche bianche con panna di mandorla, which translated means white peaches with almond cream. This dinner was the perfect excuse to buy a manual pasta roller. Rolling out the dough was so much easier. I am thankful that I didn't buy the ravioli attachment however because I think it is more fun to use my ravioli rolling pin and cutter. Here's the photographic process (since I posted the recipe several months ago:

Filling the well with the egg/water/oil mixture

What the dough looks like when all liquid has been incorporated

Dough after kneading for 5 minutes

Spreading the ricotta filling on the pasta

Cutting the ravioli

Drying out the ravioli on a pan with semolina

I have been waiting to make this dessert since 2005. Bryant bought me an Under the Tuscan Sun day planner that year and it was filled with great Italian recipes. This dessert has always looked delicious, and it is truly amazing. I didn't take a photo of my dessert because I had to use yellow peaches (I couldn't find any white ones that were ripe enough) and these were a bit too ripe so they didn't hold their form as well after poaching. I would also reduce the amount of cookie crumbs because it made the mixture a bit too dark, but the taste was still incredible. The Amaretti cookies are expensive, but lovely. Even the packaging is fabulous.

Here is a close up of the photo from the page I saved from my day planner. It is easy and very, very good.

***If you aren't a fan of the almond flavor you could simply use vanilla extract or add lemon zest. You could find a vanilla cookie to crumble instead. The Amaretti cookies are delicious and worth a try.

Pesche Bianche Con Panna Di Mandorla

1 c mascarpone

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 c heavy cream

1/4 c superfine sugar

1/2 c sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

1 1/2 c crushed almond cookie crumbs, such as Amaretti (I would reduce this to 1 cup)

6 large white peaches, ripe but not soft

1 c ginger ale or sparkling apple cider (poaching liquid)

Mix all filling ingredients and chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, peal the peaches and halve them removing the pit. Bring the poaching liquid to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the peach halves and poach for 3 to 4 minutes, spooning liquid over the halves. Remove peaches from the liquid and cool. Spoon a mound of mascarpone mixture into the center of the peach. Serve, garnished with almonds and mint leaves.

Serves 6