Italian Pastry Recipes! Ricotta Torta

It's summer time and time to enjoy Italian pastry. Why is desert so good when your Mom bakes it? Because it is made with love and warm out of the oven. From Southern Italian ladies from Italy.

Recipe of the week:
 Italian Ricotta Torta
It is a magnet for family, friends and guest. Please note popularity increase.

Homemade pastry dough
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
(sub any gluten free flour of your choosing)
1/2 sugar
(sub brown, cane or diabetic kind)
1/2 t salt
Zest from 1 lemon or orange, minced optional for surprise citrus flavor burst

Blend In:
1 cup cold unsalted butter
(sub organic or healthy alternative)

Mix in:
2 eggs
(sub free range or brown)

Mix, chill, roll to make a beautiful pie crust.

INSIDE OF TORTA:
Stir
1/2 cup of sugar
(sub cane or healthy diabetic alternative)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
(sub healthy or gluten free flour)
1/4 lemon juice strained from fresh lemon
1 12 t vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
(sub free range or brown)

Brush over top of Torta
1 egg beaten to give it that award winning torta look.

FILLING OF TORTA
4 12 cups skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mascarppone cheese  Yum
season berry fruit optional to top with

Mix pasty dough by hand. Toss dry mix. add cold butter cubes to flour until soft.
Make a well and add eggs.  Knead pasty dough. Wrap in plastic. Chill 1/2 hour before rolling.

preheat oven 375 degrees

Roll dough and put into 9 x 2 1/2 inch pie pan.

Ricotta filling, mix cheese together and stir sugar, flour, lemon, vanilla, yolks & egg. Stir, cover and chill.
Pour filling into pie pan.

Bake: 375 degree for  1 1/4 ---- 1 1/2 hours.
Crust should be golden brown or light brown to your taste.

Cool.

Put fresh whip cream, sprig mint, fresh strawberry & serve with coconut icecream.

Delicious. Reminds you of being under the Tuscan sun just like a Hallmark Christmas holiday.
Make good memories with your family today.

Stay tuned for more Italian pastry recipes.
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perfect Party Dinner Host Ideas

Ever been to a party where the presentation is spectacular?  You don't have to spend a fortune to have a beautiful dinner party.  Simple ideas to make you look like you spent alot!

Chilled ice bowl for salads with fresh herbs like mint, rosemary and flowers! A bowl fit for a King!

Flowers are essential to a dinner party like a bow tie is to a suit going to  the Oscars. So pick your favorite colors and have fun choosing themes: green and white, pink and white, purple and green, yellow and white or your special desgin. Herbs like fresh mint, basil can make the table smell lovely. Fresh picked from your garden or your nice neighbor is a great choice. Center piece made from dark purple and green grapes add a "Game Of Thrones" Kingly style to your party. The more fun you have decorating and coming up with inventive & out of the box decorative styles adds to the great experience people will have at your party.
My favorite is the pink tulip "red carpet" welcome to the party! Create a special entrance to your event.

Pop by the beach and grab sand, sea shells to create mason sand filled jars, plop mini tea tree lights and decorate with sea shells. Any empty small jar will do. You can color sand so it is pink, blue, yellow. If Valentine's day party choose red or pink sand. Fourth Of July use red, white and blue sand. It is fun and creative to decorate sand candle jars. One friend used crush red pepper to pink in sand to create a marble effect. Pink peppercorns will work if you don't a dye.

Simple string of white lights if out doors and add a pop of red to create a unique and elegant look.

Pretty Sangria picture drinks add a colorful effect and very tasty. This is a home made raspberry vodka that my cousins in Italy made. Delicious and goes well with any spaghetti dish.

Instead of serving wine straight out of the bottle try finding pretty glass decanters to give your dinner party a elevated effect.

Make your table look fantastic with beautiful wine bottles. Color splash puts everyone in a great positive mood, too.

Pick a show stopper appetizer to start of the dinner party. Fresh squid for calamari. My cousins go straight to the fish market by the sea in Naples.

Stopping by the local bread maker is a great choice if you don't have time to bake fresh bread. So Italian! With love from your local Italian baker. Yumm, can you smell the fresh bread? Don't forget the olive oil!

 Try using cool cups or glasses that you have in your china cabinet as fruit cubs, sorbet cups, soup cups. Some cups have never been let out of the china cabinet and it is time to show off your gold cups with intricate decorations.  The guest always love these presentations that are artiste but clever. They don't have to be just for coffee anymore! Esspresso cups might be best for espresso but the bigger cups and glasses work well

.Dessert is like tying a bow on your whole dinner party. Everyone tends to panic on dessert. Relax quest will appreciate your yummy treats so just pick ones you like and show off your favorites. People appreciate trying new things. The icing on the cake is when the host makes a dessert from scratch. You can have all the fancy cakes but the best one is a dessert made with love.

Nice that's a party where there is good ambiance, good friends, delicous food and lasting memories.
To more wonderful parties that create scrumptious lasting impressions.