In this section I will be uploading some culinary skills and images related to cakes and desserts and most of these will be healthy ideas and alternatives to what one would normally find in ordinary recipe books which do not focus on healthy options/alternatives.

Sweet Ricotta Pie

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

300g plain flour

100ml olive oil

100g sugar

water

Sieve the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the olive oil and mix well so that it is integrated well into the flour. Add the sugar and mix with a round ended knife. Then add enough water to form a dough. An alternative to the water would be one egg mixed with a touch of aperitiv. Knead lightly on a floured surface and then cover and place in the refrigerator for around 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the ricotta filling.

Ricotta mixture

There are many ingredients which you can place in this filling together with the ricotta. I prefer lemon juice, lemon rind and nuts and also prefer dried apricots to candied peel. One can also put fruit such a pears in the pie and cover with the ricotta. So let your imagination run wild and just put in your family's favourite ingredients.

My suggestion for today would be:

400g ricotta

100g icing sugar

juice of 2 lemons

rind of 2 lemons

chopped walnuts or pistacchios

1 egg

Beat all together until you get a very fine ricotta mix. Place in the pie over the pastry which would have now been used to line a pie dish of around 23cm diameter. Smoothen the ricotta over the pastry and place some pastry decorations on top such as stars - or else make a trellis. Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown ie for around 25 minutes.

ANOTHER HEALTHY DESSERT

This is a simple dessert which I love to use when I entertain and usually always have it as an option. I like to give my guests a low calorie dessert or option to something else which might be a bit higher in calories.

Poached Pears in Port or Wine

• Use any amount of pears (one can also use apples, bananas, oranges or berries such as strawberries for this recipe) depending on the number of guests. Usually one pear per guest is enough.
• Place in a oval shaped glass bowl which can go in the oven.
• Pour enough port or wine over the fruit to cover up to half the pears.
• Add/sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of ground cloves to around 6 pears
• If you want you can add a tablespoon of brown sugar but this is optional. It does give a syrupy result which is quite nice but even without it once the liquid is reduced you can get a nice 'thick' liquid to be served with the pears.
• Poach in the oven turning the fruit over half way through until they are cooked (as they would appear in a stew). This will take quite an amount of time (around 45 minutes at least) so to economise on the over use try to cook these whilst the oven is being used for other things. If the wine or port has all been absorbed add a little warmed wine half way through.
• Once ready serve warm with some roasted slivered almonds sprinkled over them and the reduced syrupy wine or port.
• One can enhance this with a scoop of ice cream.

Enjoy....