apple cranberry crisp

In keeping with the theme from my last post (which was in August... oops), I have been focusing on recipes that require very few ingredients and simple techniques- without sacrificing any flavor. Being that we are in the height of apple season, I ran out to the market this morning and picked up the freshest organic fruit I could find to make these easy yet delicious Apple Cranberry Crisps.

Ready in a mere 45 minutes and relatively healthy (until the ice cream gets placed on top, yum), these Apple Cranberry Crisps are a perfect five-spoonful treat for a Sunday evening curled up on the couch.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

adapted from here

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (packed)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch diced pieces

1 cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries

1/2 cup sugar

zest and juice of 1 orange

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 8 inch pan or six 5 ounce ramekins and set aside.

2. For the topping, combine butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Mash ingredients together well with hands until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add in pecans and set aside.

3. Toss apples, cranberries, sugar, zest and juice together in a bowl. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan(s). Sprinkle topping evenly over the fruit. Bake until bubbly and the apples and cranberries are tender (about 30 minutes).

4. Let the crisp cool slightly. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Torta di Mele

I was fortunate enough to study in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy (a town right outside of Florence) for a semester during college. I loved absolutely everything about my time there: the history, the fashion, the art and the views. But if I had to pick only one thing that defined my time there, I most definitely have to say it was the food.

We had our own chef in the villa I lived and studied in, an adorable old man named Nino. Day after day, he would go to the market to pick up fresh ingredients in order to prepare us our daily lunch, dinner and dessert. The ingredients came from within miles of where we lived and were purchased every morning; words cannot express the true freshness that was contained in every meal we ate. (Well, there was a lot of butter in there too, which would explain why everyone on the program gained about 10 pounds...)

But the most amazing part about what Nino cooked for us every day was the actual simplicity of his dishes. He could create true masterpieces with the use of only a few simple ingredients, something that few people can do with their cooking and baking.

While unpacking a box this week, I stumbled on some crumpled pieces of paper. As I unfolded them, I realized I had just found gold: my copies of recipes from the Villa Corsi-Salviati kitchen. While most of them are pasta dishes (including the best pesto recipe ever), there are a few dessert recipes as well, one of which I am sharing in this post.

This Torta di Mele is extremely simple to make, requiring only 9 ingredients and a few minutes in the kitchen. If you make sure to use the freshest milk, apples and lemons in this torta, you will not be disappointed with the result. You may even feel like you are on a quick trip to Italy.

Torta di Mele

from the Villa Corsi-Salviati kitchen

3 Granny Smith apples

juice of one lemon

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

7 tablespoons melted butter

a little over 3/4 cups sifted flour

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Peel the apples and cut them into thin slices. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice. In a separate bowl, mix all other ingredients until it becomes a semi-liquid batter. Add in the apple slices to the mixture and stir until coated and thoroughly mixed in.

Pour mixture into a round pan and place in the oven for about 45 minutes. The torta should be golden brown on top. Once removed from the oven and slightly cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Buon appetito!