Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Italian Cookery with Silvia Todesco – Hearts shaped Puff pastry stuffed with bacon: be ready for Valentine’s Day appetizer!

This month, and just in time for Valentine’s Day, Silvia Todesco shares a wonderful appetizer that should make your special dinner sizzle.

Hearts shaped Puff pastry stuffed with bacon

Just over a week until VALENTINE’S DAY! Although many of us who have found our “other half” also have kids (and may not be able to go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day), we should not give up on celebrating!

This month I would like to propose to you a recipe for a very tasty and elegant appetizer, ideal for celebrating the “day of love” at home with our family! But before I go ahead, let me just inform you that VALENTINE’S DAY is a celebration followed also in Italy, exactly the same day as yours: February 14th. And I would like to add that, in Italy, perhaps just to find the way to make more money (for restaurateurs and other businesses who cater to such holidays) they introduced another festivity, on February 15th, where they celebrate “SINGLES”! So each “free” person goes out to parties organized just to celebrate their being alone, or maybe to find their soul-mate… Do you celebrate Singles too? Well whether you are single or in a relationship, you will fall in LOVE with this recipe!!!

Ingredients for 4 servings (about 15 hearts)

• 1 thawed puff pastry sheet (1 foglio di pasta sfoglia)
• 2-3 tbs rosemary (dry or fresh) (2-3 cucchiai di rosmarino)
• 2-3 tbs parmesan cheese (2-3 cucchiai di grana
• 1 beaten egg (uovo sbattuto)
• 8-10 slices of bacon (8-10 fette di pancetta affumicata)

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 400 F. (250 C.). Lay the puff pastry sheet on a baking paper, and brush on some of the beaten egg (you will need more of it in the next steps). Then sprinkle the rosemary, and then the parmesan.

Arrange the slides of bacon on the top, as regularly as you can.

Fold one side of the puff pastry toward the middle, and then do the same for the other side creating 2 equal halves.

Apply to the top some more beaten egg, and then fold the two sides together, as shown in the picture.

Brush the rest of the beaten egg on the outside of your loaf, and then cut it in slices about 1/2 inch wide.(Since the pastry will be very sticky at this point, I usually use a kitchen scissors, or a very sharp knife to cut it).

Arrange the obtained hearts on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Bake for about 20 minutes on the middle rack of your oven.

Enjoy your appetizer while still warm!

LEARNT IT, MADE IT, LOVED IT!

Tips: – This appetizer is absolutely delicious, fancy, and simple to prepare, so I would make it any time I have some guests to impress!

– If you know that you will not have time enough for preparing the hearts at dinner time, you can also make them during the day, and keep them refrigerated, and bake them at the very last minute.

– Since they are made with puff pastry, these appetizer have to be eaten immediately, and are not ideal as leftovers.

– According to my experience, kids love this food (who doesn’t love bacon?!?) so don’t hesitate to make them happy with this fun Valentine treat!

If you live in the QUAD CITIES AREA (Iowa, USA) you can order desserts from Silivia from her Italian Home Bakery

My thanks to Silvia for another delicious recipe, and it would be great if you would share your feedback and the post for others to enjoy and subscribe to Italian Goodness if you would like to receive a new recipe each week for free.

About Silvia Todesco

I’m Silvia, I come from Veneto Region (from Bassano del Grappa precisely, one hour by car far from Venice), and I moved to Iowa in 2011, because of my husband’s job necessities.

I’ve grown up watching my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother cooking for my family every day, searching carefully for ingredients and preparing fresh food. That was their way to show us how much they cared (and care) about us, and to carry on a tradition. I cannot recall a festivity without relatives everywhere and tons of delicious food to eat!

But my way was different I graduated with honors at the University of Law of Padua, and (obviously) I became a lawyer. As a professional, I used to work 14 hours a day, and, of course, the time I could dedicate to my family (and cooking) was almost none.

Then fate brought us here, and finally I’ve found myself. All my background came up, and I realized that taking care of my family is the most satisfying job I could do, especially because it entails cooking healthy and good food!

So I started to practice what I learned when I was young, and surprised myself in making all those meals that characterized my youth.

Integration in a new society is not easy, but it was nice for us to discover how much Italians are loved abroad! And since every new person we have met asked me if I was a good cook, and told me that they love Italian food, well, I decided to share my Italian cooking culture and recipes with you!

Of course, you won’t need to be an expert to follow my recipes! What I’m writing about is our daily menus- recipes made with simple and few ingredients, most of the time cheap and healthy (because the food is not processed).

Plus, considering my passion for cooking, I will also share with you new recipe I discovered in magazines, websites, or shared by friends, and in this case I will always describe you the origin of my posts objects.

In addition, I promise not only to write about Italian food, but especially to give suggestions related to where and how to find the right ingredients and tools you will need. I really hope that you will enjoy my tips!

Connect to Silvia

Website: Italian Goodness
Facebook: Italian Goodness Facebook
Instagram: Beauty and Four Kids
Twitter: @silviatodesco81
Pinterest: Silvia Todesco

You can find all the recipes for a four course Italian meal in this file and also Silvia’s monthly posts. https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/italian-cookery-with-silvia-todesco/

Thanks again for dropping by and as always your feedback and sharing of the post is very appreciated. Sally and Silvia