This recipe for Mustard fruits comes from celebrity chef Angela Hartnett's cookery book Cucina and is an ingredient in her pumpkin tortelli dish.
Mustard fruits
These preserved pears are simple to make but take three days to complete. They require mustard essence - which apparently you can only find in Italy. They are an important ingredient in a recipe for Pumpkin tortelli - which is taken from celebrity chef Angela Hartnett's new cookery book Cucina: Three Generations of Italian Family Cooking (Ebury Press, £25). Angela Hartnett, who has been described by Gordon Ramsay as 'the new Elizabeth David' also says that Mustard fruits can be used with meats and with cheese. They feature stongly in the cooking of the Mantua region around Cremona, but are also used a lot in Emilia-Romagna.
Ingredients (makes 2 x 500ml jars)
1 kg small or baby pears, peeled - but stalks left on
400g caster sugar
10 drops mustard essence
Method
1. Halve the pears, cutting through the stalk, then put them in a large bowl and mix with the sugar. Cover with cling film and leave at room temperature for 12 hours. This begins the fermentation process and brings out the juice of the fruit.
2. Remove the pears from the sugar, shaking off any excess. Place in a large dish. Put the sugar and pear juices in a pan, bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour the hot syrup over the pears. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 hours.
3. Repeat the process of pouring off and boiling up the syrup three more times - so it will take 2 whole days from start to finish. The pears will release a lot of juice over this time.
4. The final time, measure out your remaining syrup. You'll need to reduce this to a third of its volume, so place it in a pan and bring to the boil. Boil until reduced by two thirds. Add the fruit to the pan, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes. Leave the fruit to cool in the syrup.
5. Once completely cold, transfer the pears to sterilized preserving jars. Add the mustard essence to the syrup, then pour into the jars and seal. They will keep, sealed, for up to 6 months.
In her book, Angela Hartnett also gives a couple of delicous recipes for desserts using pears. One is a version of a French dish - pear and almond tart, and the other is a simple but sophisticated dish - poached pears with Gorgonzola.
