I think of flavor as a 360-degree experience—obvious to those of you familiar with the K&C tagline (food for all five senses), but perhaps less obvious in tangible practice than in theory. What does it mean to feed all of our senses, to drench the palate and the nose and the eyes and the tactile and aural perceptors, too? (I JUST SAID PERCEPTORS. WHAT IS HAPPENING.)
Let’s start with the utterly tangible: This lush plum and pistachio crostata, laced with vanilla bean in the pastry and served with lemon verbena-infused whipped cream.
Recipe development often feels like art-making to me (see: what I’ve dubbed last week’s “Rothcake” on My Name is Yeh)—I approach intuitively, imagistically, attuned to the textures, flavors, and scents of the season. What does the heat sound like singing along telephone wires outside my window, what smells will cool the constant sunshine, what tastes will ease the brightness of the day? I’m not exactly a synesthete, but I feel synesthetically about preparing food.
Let it be a wild celebration of the senses commingling, or let it be nothing.
DAMN. The drama.
These mini cornmeal crostatas, however, deliver. They deliver in spades, layered with pistachio, brushed with lemon-verbena infused egg wash (you’ll see!), and topped with the most gorgeously flavored cream.
Look for lemon verbena at your local farmers market, coop, or health food store. It’s not a plant that’s readily available everywhere, and you can certainly make the recipe without it entirely. But if you find it, grab it. Use the leaves fresh until they dry, and then use them with even greater fervor once they’re dry. It is bright and grassy and subtle. It reminds me of France in the summer, heat simmering everywhere.
Enjoy these beauts!
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MINI PLUM & PISTACHIO CORNMEAL CROSTATA WITH LEMON VERBENA WHIPPED CREAM.
Ingredients
cornmeal vanilla bean pastry
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornmeal or corn flour
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground vanilla bean
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled and cut into small cubes, 1 ½ sticks
- 2 tablespoons ice water
filling
- 4-5 small plums (I used satsuma but any will do)
- ¼ cup finely chopped unsalted pistachio meats
- ¼ cup raw sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons of lemon-verbena infused whipping cream from below
whipped cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup loosely packed lemon verbena leaves fresh or dried
- 2 teaspoon honey
Instructions
- Heat whipping cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- Pack lemon verbena leaves into a cloth tea bag or cheesecloth. Once steam rises from whipping cream, add tea bag and immerse in whipping cream. Continue to heat cream just until it almost simmers. Then remove from heat. Steep at least one hour, or longer for a stronger flavor. When done steeping, squeeze liquid out from bag and pour infused cream into a small bowl. Place in fridge to chill, with plastic wrap covering the surface.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal or corn flour, salt, vanilla bean, and sugar. Add cubed chilled butter and use a fork to work the dough together until the butter is in roughly pea-sized chunks. Add two tablespoons ice water and use your hands to work the dough together, just until smooth. Pockets of butter are fine. Do not overwork! Once it’s together as a cohesive whole, flatten into a thick disk and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge to chill at least an hour.
- Slice plums to ¼-inch thickness and set aside.
- Whisk 1 egg with 2 teaspoons infused whipping cream for your egg wash, and set aside in fridge.
- After 1 hour, remove dough from fridge and divide into 5 even pieces. Cover a large baking sheet in parchment paper. Roll out each piece to a ¼-inch thickness and place on the baking sheet.
- Brush the surface of each disk of dough with your egg wash. Sprinkle a circle in the center of each with chopped pistachios and a bit of raw sugar. Leave a 1 ½-inch perimeter.
- Arrange the plum slices in a circle in the middle of each crostata, overlapping slightly. Then fold the edges of dough in. Sprinkle the plums with a tad more raw sugar.
- Brush the exposed dough with the egg wash, and place baking sheet in the fridge to chill at least 30 minutes.
- 110 minutes before you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400º. When ready, bake crostatas 20-30 minutes, until they’re golden brown and caramelized on the bottom.
- 1While they bake, remove infused whipping cream from the fridge and transfer to a large bowl. Add 2 teaspoons honey. Use an electric mixer to whip cream until soft peaks form. Chill until ready to serve.
- 1Remove crostatas from oven and transfer to a cooling rack by sliding parchment paper onto rack directly from baking sheet. Cool 10-15 minutes, then serve with lemon verbena whipped cream and an extra sprinkle of pistachios.
