When it comes to hosting a Christmas meal, every Italian region has its own traditional courses: from starters to pudding, we all have a well known path we occasionally steer away from because we know it’s a winner and it’s what our guests expect. Whether it’s Spaghetti con le Vongole or Cotechino, Panettone or Cartellate, Nonna’s cookbook offers very clear guidelines (although very approximate measurements!) to preparing a delicious Christmas meal that just speaks family and love!
It’s not until NY eve that Italian families tend to be a bit more audacious and experiment with new flavours and recipes. Starters are a great course to let your fantasy run wild because they are usually quick to make, often served in a good variety (so not a big deal if one doesn’t tickle someone’s fancy) and they can be served cold.
Our Gorgonzola and Ricotta Parcels are both a great starter and main course, depending on the size of the parcel and on the quantity served. The recipe below caters for 9 big dumplings: you could easily serve three of those as a main or any less as a starter. You could also cut the filo pastry sheet in 6 rather than 3 stripes to make bite-sized parcels.
We chose filo pastry in place of traditional puff pastry to give these samosa-like dumplings a lighter, flakier texture. The gorgonzola will give the filling enough richness: trust us! But if you want to err more on the indulgent side, try swapping some of the ricotta for a big dollop of mascarpone.
This recipe really is a winner for your NY eve menu: it’s virtually fool-proof so that even the busiest or least experienced chef can make it in no time, it’s vegetarian and all ingredients are easily sourced in all UK supermarkets!
With this last festive recipes, Linguini would like to wish all of you a fantastic year ahead full of food and love… which is pretty much the same thing!
Buon anno nuovo a tutti!
Gorgonzola and Ricotta Parcels with Honey Glaze
Ingredients
For the filling
- 500 grams Ricotta
- 200 grams Gorgonzola
- Salt to taste
- Olive Oil to taste
For the crust
- 1 pack Filo Pastry or roughly 15 sheets
- 50 grams Melted butter (for brushing the filo pastry)
To garnish
- 1-2 tbsp Panettone Flavoured Syrup (recipe: https://linguini.uk/ricetti/panettone-flavoured-syrup/)
Instructions
- Cut the gorgonzola in small pieces and add it to a large bowl together with the ricotta. Add a bit of salt and oil to taste and blend everything together with an hand blender until the cheesy batter is smooth and creamy.
- Lay down one sheet of filo pastry (of approximately 50cm x 50cm) on the kitchen worktop, brush it with some melted butter and gently overlap another filo pastry sheet of the same dimension. Repeat again the operation with a third pastry filo sheet (the crust must be composed of 3 sheets in total).
- Cut the filo pastry in three strips. Place a generous spoon of the ricotta/gorgonzola filling mixture at one end of the strip, leaving a 2cm border. Take the right corner and fold diagonally to the left, enclosing the filling and forming a triangle. Fold again along the upper crease of the triangle. Keep folding in this way until you reach the end of the strip.
- Repeat the same procedure with other filo pastry sheets until the filling is over (with the doses of this recipe you should obtain approxibately 9-10 samosas)
- Put all the samosas on a baking tray and brush the surface with some melted butter. Bake them in the oven at at 180° for approximately 15-20 minutes (check the surface of the samosas, when they are golden brown it is time to take them out of the oven).
- Garnish the samosas with a spoon of our Panettone Flavoured Syrup and they are ready to eat!
