Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/821520
maltatoday, TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2017 14 Food Election Homemade pastizzi Ingedients Dough • 120g flour • 235ml water, ice cold • 2 tbsp oil • pinch of salt • Shortening or lard Filling • 850g of ricotta • 50g Parmesan • Pinch parsley, finely chopped • Salt and pepper Method 1. Make the filling by mixing all of the ingredients and set aside. 2. Preheat oven to 180°C. 3. Mix the flour, water, oil and salt in a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. 4. The dough is ready when it comes away from the sides of the bowl and is elastic. 5. Remove the dough from the bowl and rub lightly with lard or shortening. 6. Let the dough sit for 15 mins and then cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 mins. 7. Cut the dough in half and working one half at a time stretch and roll out the dough into a rectangle shape. 8. Roll the dough until very thin and almost see-through. 9. Rub the top of the dough with a thick layer of lard or shortening. 10. Start rolling the dough on itself in as you would a roly poly. The tighter you can get this the better as this is what determines the flakiness of the finished product. 11. Once the dough has been rolled up into a sausage shape, roll out the second half of the dough and cover in lard or shortening as you did with the first half. 12. When you come to roll the second half, place the first sausage-shaped roll onto the rolled out pastry and roll them together into one sausage shape. 13. Lay it in a coil and put it in the freezer until almost frozen. This makes it easier to cut and work at later stages. 14. Remove from the freezer and cut a 4-inch slice off the end. You should be able to see all the layers from when you rolled the pastry. 15. Place the slice between two layers of plastic wrap with the interior layers facing up. 16. Roll into a circle shape and place a tablespoon of filling into the centre. 17. Fold one of the edges until it meets the other, squashing the ends together to make a… err… pastizz- shape. 18. Lay it on a greased baking sheet and either freeze or bake. 19. Bake the pastizzi for 20 mins until golden. Eating habits of a person can tell you a lot about them. When you go out on a first date you tend to judge your date by what he/she chooses and the way he/she eats it. Politicians are no different. Join us as we find out which politicians love or hate which foods Munchies THIS is not an easy task and when you can buy more than one of them for just a euro, at almost every street corner, you have to think, is it worth the hassle? Getting that crisp, f laky pastry is no easy task and the amount of fat required is not something to be scoffed at. The way to f laky heaven lies in the layer of shortening or lard lathered onto the dough before rolling into a sau- sage shape. So this is not probably a recipe you want to put on your every-week-list. One thing that makes this a worthy cause is that you can experiment with the fillings. Tired of rikotta or pizelli? Try your hand at any fillings you fancy. Sweet or savoury, the sky's the limit when it comes to creat- ing a filling that goes well with this f laky pastry. ANN FENECH and the pastizz Last February Ann Fenech, the PN's execu- tive president, authored the worst possible insult directed towards Malta's most loved snack calling them "crude and common". In a Facebook post she questioned the Prime Minister's decision to take the Prime Min- isters of Luxembourg, Slovenia and Belgium to Crystal Palace, in Rabat, better known as Serkin, for pastizzi and "te fit-tazza", on their day off after the Malta Summit. Following a social media lynching she apologised to everyone she may have offended and even had her pic- ture taken at Serkin itself, swallow- ing her humble 'cheesecake'. Make your own "crude and common" pastizzi