All-natural homemade pistachio pudding

 

 

 

 

Remember the pistachio ice cream of our childhood? It came in big tubs and had a light, almost flourescent green hue. It was very sweet and tasted more like almonds than pistachios, although it didn't taste much like almonds either if we are really being honest.

 

Pistachio ice cream, or pistachio gelato, is a different world nowadays because Italians take their pistachios very seriously. It is a darker, more natural shade of green, almost a sage green.The not-too-sweet, a-touch-salty incredibly creamy custard is usually interspersed with chopped pistachios that add texture and flavor. It is often made with pistacchi di Bronte, the best the country has to offer although in some gelaterie you can choose between Sicilian, Californian and Iranian pistachios.  I wasn't kidding.

 

 

 

 

I recently received two large packs of pistachios as a gift: my sister-in-law had been to Bronte and my father-in-law brought back some amazing Iranian pistachios from the Middle East. Everytime I open my cupboard and see them lying there I feel a pang of guilt, because I still haven't used them.

 

So finally, a couple of weeks ago, I made some pistachio paste. It is actually just the pistachio butter from the linked recipe with a little added sugar (no butter), so follow the indications for making the butter.

 

And then it just sat there.

 

I will be honest: I am scared of both the pistachios and the paste. I am trying to loose some weight and pistachios are just one of those things I don't want to be around. I know they are nutritious and full of healthy fat and that I could have them in my breakfast granola or yogurt or as a snack. But you know how it is... you start with one and before you know it you have had about fifty.

 

As a result making gelato, my first instinct, is out of the question, because there is NO.WAY I can resist that.

 

And then yesterday, on a whim, I finally settled for pudding. I though it would be a good solution for the kids and not as much a temptation for me. Little did I know...

 

 

 

 

So pudding it was. I started surfing the web for a recipe and was astonished at the quantity of dessert recipes I found that used packaged pistachio pudding base. It seems that,  unlike the ice cream of the '70's, green pistachio pudding full of food coloring and goodness knows what else, is still very popular, at least abroad. Who knew?

 

Then I finally came across a recipe on Joy the Baker that actually used homemade pistachio paste.

I'm thinking next time I can avoid the butter, because really, there are enough healthy oils in the nuts.

I unfortunately could only have a spoonful from each child (you know, just for equality's sake) and was really blown away by the outcome. It  was silky and smooth, not too sweet and full of flavor. 

 

 

 

 

Milk, eggs, sugar, pistachios and a thickening agent... that is all you will need. This is pudding the way your grandma would have made it... the flavor is incredible, the color is natural (if you want it even greener, just get rid of the peels) and it took only 15 minutes (although I did make the pistachio paste beforehand)!

 

Pistachios are pretty easy to find anywhere, and any upscale store sells pistachio paste or butter if you are too lazy to make it, so you have no excuse! Throw away that package of pistachio pudding mix and try this. 

 

 

 

Paste di Mandorla for zio Filippo

I probably shouldn't call these paste di mandorle because technically they aren't.

But let me start from the beginning.

On Wednesday zio Filippo (F's uncle) passed away. It was in the air, I woke up feeling a little melanchonic. I just didn't have it in me to write anything funny or cutesy. But you know that already if you read my last post. Then, in the evening, we got the sad news from Sicily.

Zio Filippo was no longer a young man and in the past year the C word had entered his life. Despite this, his death took us by surprise. It is not that long ago that I remember him working his piece of land, telling us about the many fruits his plants were bearing, the plants he tended to with great love and care. He loved food and cooking and often sent us things he had picked, prepared with his own hands or delicacies he had discovered in the surrounding area. He loved to read, he loved theater and music. I have fond memories of him singing a beautiful aria one evening shortly after our wedding. That night food was plenty, wine was flowing in copious amounts and by the end of the evening both my relatives and F's had taken turns singing and reciting poems and not an eye was dry. It was beautiful, a memory I will always cherish.

But the thing zio Filippo loved above all, after his family of course, was his island, so ruggedly beautiful, so rich in history and art, so misunderstood and plagued by the corruption of few.

My in-laws were already on their way to Sicily when the news came and attended the funeral yesterday for all of us. F lit a candle in church and I left the office a little early to make these sweets for him. While his grandson, the one named after him and who is following in his footsteps pursuing a military career, was reading a letter about him to a crowd in Trapani and F was lighting the wick, I was mixing the ingredients, the essence of Sicily. Whilst grinding the almonds I started thinking of the beauty of the blooming trees, while I was zesting the lemon I thought of the island's clear waters, the crisp blue sky, the winds from Africa. I thought of zio Filippo, his bushy eyebrows, his family, the many children and grandchildren he left behind. I thought that he had done good, that he had had a full rich life, no regrets. I thought of his wife, zia Lina, of the first time I saw her making paste di mandorle in my mother in law's kitchen and of how hard it must be for her. They were married for more than half a century.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I realized too late that I had skipped an important step. I forgot to beat the egg whites. I just mixed them in! I baked the cookies anyway, determined to make these in Filippo's memory and honor. I'm glad I did, because they turned out delicious anyway. They were chewy and full of flavor. Perhaps they didn't rise as much and they were chewy and soft instead of being slighty cakeu and moist, but every bite was still a bite of Sicily.

Per te, zio Filippo.


I got the recipe from Manu's Menu.
This is a vegetarian recipe, it uses up those left over egg whites in your freezer, it has just four ingredients and it is gluten free. What are you waiting for?