RECIPE! Pear & Blackberry Crostata

PRIOR TO MAKING this recipe I'd never before heard of crostata. Or so I thought. Apparently, I've eaten them with some frequency. After some online research, crostata turns out to be little more than an Italian quick-fix recipe for a more labor-intensive pastry--a tart. Score another point for Italian home-cooking.

Truth be told, this recipe looked anything but easy when I first saw at it. Making a pastry crust from scratch seemed like an awfully intricate and complicated task, and not one I thought myself ready for. The result, however, was a surprisingly simple process so very far less daunting than it seemed and a terrifically impressive dessert that's fairly hard to mess up. It's really worth a shot for anyone who doesn't bake often but wants to look good doing it. Locate the following:

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
+ 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup butter
+ 2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp shredded lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup blackberry preserves or jam
4 medium peeled, sliced pears

1. In medium bowl, stir together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and baking powder. Using a pasty blender (or: two knives cutting in opposite directions--it helps if the butter is not too cold for this but it absolutely cannot [read: cannot] be warm and/or melting), cut in 2/3 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

2. In small bowl, mix egg, 1/3 cup milk, 1 tsp lemon peel, and vanilla. Pour mixture into flour mixture, stirring until moistened. Knead gently until smooth (keep hands well- floured). Separate one-third dough, set aside; pat remaining two-thirds into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch tart pan. Spread blackberry preserves evenly over pastry in tart pan.

3. If you have the space and a rolling pin, turn out the remaining dough on a well-floured surface into a 9-inch circle. If you live in New York City (read: have a kitchen the size of a shoebox), sprinkle flour on a plate, covering it well. Take up the 1/3 remainder of dough in well-floured hands, and work dough into a flat circle as large as is easily obtained, attempting for 6-7 inches in diameter. Set on floured plate and lightly work outwards to full-size; place in freezer.

4. In a large bowl (this can be the now-empty dough bowl), toss together pears, 1/4 sugar, and 1 tsp lemon peel. Arrange pear slices over preserves in tart pan. Drizzle with melted 2 tbsp butter. (Tip: wait to peel/slice pears until this step--the dough firming in the freezer will be easier to work with next step.)

5. Remove your chilled, flattened dough on well-floured plate from freezer. Cut into 1/2-inch wide strips. Arrange strips over pears in a lattice pattern. (Looks fancy, right?) Brush lattice with additional milk; sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Cool tart in pan for 30 minutes, serve warm. (Tip: if particularly juicy, you can chill your crostata fully in fridge after allowing it to sit out its 30 minutes in pan.)

I felt like adding those notes in italics within the body of the recipe instead of here post-recipe as is MEF! custom because some of those points are rather important--they make working the recipe significantly easier, cleaner, and more successful. So, there you go. The crust of this thing is ridiculously rich (almost a cup of butter will do that), tastes like you spent way more time on it than you did, and the lattice-work looks like you are way better at baking than you are. Not too bad for not too much work.

Yes, That's Right, Malted Milk Ball Ice Cream!

The City Grill
296 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
212-873-9400
www.thecitygrillnyc.com

STEPH AND I spent the afternoon at The Morgan Library. For $12, it's one of those random New York museum experiences that reminds you simultaneously how old and young this city is. The Morgan name should sound familiar: J.P. Morgan has been offering financial services for those who can afford if since, well, a while ago. The library and museum in NYC houses all of the family's books, Gutenberg Bibles, Mozart manuscripts, and medieval art pieces. You know, the stuff any family has laying around after a few hundred years of financial industry dominance.

This reminds me how young this city is because five hundred years of history just doesn't cut it on the world scene. You walk into Morgan's white marble foyer, turn into his study (complete with Renaissance-painted wood ceiling panels) and wonder just what is this is doing in New York? You're trying too hard, literally, if you need to import your ceiling from the Renaissance. Yet, it's beautiful and you'll admire it anyway.

Was there food involved in this?

Steph and I went back uptown afterwards and ended up having dinner sitting at The City Grill's bar while watching Ohio State beat Georgetown en route to the national championship game. The enormous crab cake sandwich was fantastic; the game was better. The dessert, however, does deserve a few more sentences:

Why do you want this dessert? Keep reading to find out!

We ordered two desserts, actually. The first was a grilled pound cake listed among the daily specials with vanilla ice cream, sliced peaches and strawberries. A good idea, but the pound cake was obviously grilled on the same grill as everything else in the restaurant. This gave the pound cake an odd taste neither of us much liked--we split one of the two slices and abandoned the other.

Our second dessert was a simple brownie sundae ($6.50), but instead of vanilla ice cream it came with malted milk ball ice cream, which was, yes, as amazing as it sounds. Whipped cream and chocolate syrup were also involved, the brownie was excellent on its own, but I'll repeat--malted milk ball ice cream! Seriously, I'd pay full price next time just for that.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Do I have to say it again? Malted milk ball ice cream!

Umm, It Was on the Corner?

Capitol City Brewery
11th Street & H Street
Washington, D.C.
202-628-2222
www.capcitybrew.com

WE ONLY HAD a couple of hours before the parking garage we hid our car in for the day closed and locked us out of our ride back to NYC. So, we decided not to wander aimlessly in search of one last meal and settled for the convenience of the corner we were standing on.

The Capitol City Brewery, in all honesty, wasn't really a compromise. Mint once had there a reportedly incredible oatmeal stout and was crossing her fingers to find it on tap again. We weren't so lucky, but the Prohibition Porter and sweet Double D ale were good stand-ins, though both a touch too sweet. At $5.00 a glass, the price was good by New York standards, but we have no idea what the good folks of Washington are used to paying for their draught beers.

The food was, as expected for a downtown location, overpriced. The portabello soup wasn't half bad, but the crab cake sandwich was a bit dry and Mint's steak looked meager. The high point of dinner was clearly the sweet potato fries. And dessert.

A huge pile of warm bananas foster with vanilla ice cream plus a chocolate brownie covered with, what else, chocolate syrup (predictable, but who cares) made for one more dessert than the two of us could handle.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Skip dinner. Drinks, dessert, and move on.