Tarte Nordmande
A French classic, featuring orchard-grown apples, a buttery short crust pastry, and a splash of apple brandy.
Ingredients:
For the short crust pastry:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
1 egg
⅛ tsp salt
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
For the tart:
3-4 apples, such as Pink Lady or other firm baking apple with good flavor
¾ cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
½ cup crème fraîche (or heavy cream)
¼ cup Calvados (or other apple brandy)
Powdered sugar (optional, for serving)
Method:
1. To prepare the crust: In a medium bowl, combine butter and ½ cup powdered sugar. Beat with an electric hand mixer until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat again until fluffy. Add the salt and flour and mix just until the dough comes together into a soft ball. (This dough should not be too sticky.) Place the ball of dough into your tart pan and press the dough gently to fill the pan. Place the dough-lined pan in the refrigerator, while you prepare your filling ingredients, and being to preheat your oven to 400º.
2. For the filling, mix together the powdered sugar, 2 eggs, crème fraîche (or heavy cream), and Calvados (or other brandy). Set aside. Peel and slice apples into ⅜”-½” thick.
3. Remove the crust from the refrigerator and arrange the slices over the dough in the tart pan. Place the pan on a lined baking sheet for easy transportation and to catch any spill-over. Pour the Calvados mixture over the apples in the tart pan. (You may not use all of this mixture, just be conscious that you are not over-filling your pan.) Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes, until the cream is firm and the tart is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Sprinkle with powdered sugar once cool, if desired.)
Hearty, Healthy Italian Recipes
This week’s box is packed with the vibrant flavors of Italy, found in the forms of fresh bucatini pasta, Italian sausage from Skagit River Ranch, and rustic bread—plus health-boosting, vitamin-rich produce, too, from hearty kale to beautiful locally-foraged mushrooms, plus crisp carrots, winter squash, bright radicchio and fresh leeks. Enjoy these seasonal beauties alongside farm-fresh eggs, fragrant herbs and both crème fraîche and fromage blanc from our own creamery; mangia!
Here are a few recipe ideas for the week:
Bucatini Pasta with Italian Sausage & Kale
Everyone will be asking for seconds of this extremely satisfying dish.
Fresh Radicchio, Fennel & Apple Salad
Tart, crunchy and crisp, this cool salad celebrates the classic combination of fennel and radicchio.
Roasted Leeks
Seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted leeks make for a satisfying side dish.
Garlic Butter-Roasted Mushrooms
Roasted with capers and garlic, this simple mushroom dish is a real show-stopper.
Crème Fraîche Salad Dressing
Creamy, yet light, this dressing is fantastic tossed with greens and thinly-sliced radish.
Good Morning Recipes
Rise and shine—it’s breakfast time! This weekend, cozy up to a brunch-themed box that stars such farmhouse favorites as smoky organic bacon, farm-fresh eggs from our heritage breed hens, and hearty and healthful multigrain bread, plus bubbly prosecco, Dick Taylor drinking chocolate and our housemade crème fraîche. Also accented by French Breakfast radishes, purple sprouting broccoli, sweet Italian peppers, pears, kiwi berries and last of the season heirloom tomatoes, this lineup is sure to help you start your day off right.
Here are a few recipe ideas for the week:
Bacon, Onion & Herb Quiche
Light and bright, with a touch of smokiness courtesy of the bacon, this quiche is bound to be a sure-fire hit.
Baked Eggs with Crème Fraîche & Fresh Herbs
These oeufs en cocotte boast a wonderful balance between the rich crème fraîche and the bright parsley and chives.
Fingerling Potato ‘Homefries’
These creamy, rustic potatoes are flecked with fresh parsley and red pepper flakes for heat.
Bietola Swiss Chard Gratin
Creamy with just a hint of mustard, this rustic gratin makes for a lovely side dish.
Prosecco-Poached Pears
This simple poaching method produces a beautifully-light dessert.
Roasted Ratatouille Toasts
A delightful spin on the classic stew, this time slathered on toasted bread as a starter!
Method:
1 heirloom tomato, roughly chopped
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes, some sliced in half, others left whole
½ eggplant, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 zucchini or summer squash, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 sweet pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch red pepper flakes
⅓ cup olive oil
2½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 loaf rustic bread or focaccia, sliced into ½-inch-thick slices
½ cup crumbled sheep’s milk feta or fresh ricotta
½ cup basil, thinly sliced
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large roasting pan, toss the tomatoes, eggplant, squash or zucchini, pepper, onion and garlic with red pepper flakes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a healthy pinch of salt and pepper. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned and the tomatoes have released their juices. Stir the vegetables halfway through cooking, and then toss again once they have been removed from the oven.
2. Remove the vegetables from the oven and increase the temperatures to a broil. Lightly brush each slice of bread or focaccia with olive oil. Place them on the upper rack of the oven and toast until lightly browned, 1-2 minutes.
3. Top each toast with a generous portion of the ratatouille mixture, and then add a little crumbled feta or dollop of ricotta on each. Garnish with the basil and season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
