Bocconotti Calabrese
Bocconotti pastry recipes are known all over southern Italy, and one of the best known are bocconotti Calabrese with a filling of grape marmalade.
When leaving Puglia a neighbour often brings over a gift of home made mostarda, and I’ve always wondered about the use of the word ‘mostarda’ or mustard in connection with this smooth dark marmalade made on grapes. Fortunately Google provides an answer, and it turns out that the traditional recipe contained mustard seeds.
Today’s mostarda is made on grapes boiled with sugar before they are passed through a sieve or blended to a smooth jam. And it’s the sort of thing, you most likely have to make from scratch, unless you have a nice Italian granny, who is happy to make it for you and donate a jar. In other words, I’ve never seen mostarda d’uva in the shops. Alternatively you’ll have to make bocconotti Calabrese with other kinds of dark fruity marmalade.
Ingredients
For the pastry dough
250 g flour type 00
1 tsp baking powder
125 g powdered sugar
100 g lard (cold butter can be used instead)
2 eggs
Grated zest of 1 orange.
250 g mostarda d’uva
Preparation
Pass flour, powdered sugar and baking powder through a sieve into a bowl and mix the ingredients.
Chop the cold lard into the dry ingredients and rub the lumps between your fingers, until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Mix with eggs and grated orange zest and use your hands to to press the dough together.
Wrap the pastry dough in cling film and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour.
Roll the pastry into 30 even sized balls, flatten each ball with a rolling pin, and use half the dough to line 15 cupcake molds.
Fill each mold with mostarda, seal it with a lid of pastry and trim the edges.
Bocconotti Calabrese should bake in a 175 C / 350 F warm oven for 15-20 minutes.
Remove the bocconotti Calabrese from the oven when they are golden.
Leave then on a wire rack to cool.
And dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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