Because mom’s recipes from the old “cookbooks” should not be forgotten.
Here is the recipe for Pasta Flora or Pasta Frola, as Grandma Mariouchi called it.
The one my mother made with strawberry jam that my father liked.
This is how the dispute with my Italian grandmother always began, whose recipe, the authentic one, called for apricots and nothing else!
Of course, you should use apricots, just like Grandma Mariouchi!
Because, as she said, and she was absolutely right, you need a little tartness to balance the buttery sweet dough…
Choose a top-quality butter from Naxos or the Tositsa Foundation and don’t say, “Oh, too much butter, it will be heavy…”
The recipe
The recipe from my grandmother’s old notebook seems as if not a day has passed.
Slowly turn the pages to find it and come across caramel cream or jam cookies, or mocha ice cream.
I pause, but my desire for Pasta Flora remains strong.
I can still hear my grandmother’s words…
Make the strings thinner, so they form nice angles, be careful…
For a 23-25 cm baking pan.
Ingredients
200 gr. all-purpose flour
150 gr. butter
80 gr. sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt, as my grandmother used to say, i.e. a pinch
finely grated zest of one small lemon
approx. 350 g apricot jam
extra butter and flour for the baking pan
The preparation
You can make the dough by hand, in a mixer, or even in a food processor.
Put the flour, frozen butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl and mix until combined.
Then add the eggs and zest, knead a little more, shape into a ball with your hands, cover, and refrigerate for about an hour.
Butter and flour the baking pan well.
Divide the dough into 2/3 for the base and 1/3 for the strings.
Roll out the larger portion with flour so that it doesn’t stick, fits in the pan, and covers the sides of the pan.
Cut off any excess and fill with jam, spreading it over the entire surface.
Make thin strips and place them on top of the jam until you run out of dough and form the familiar squares, starting from the center.
The more clumsy the strips, the stronger the memories…
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, place the Flora pastry in the oven, and in about 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven, it will be ready.
The result
The house will smell of butter and fruit…
An indescribable sensation!
Let it cool for about half an hour and enjoy it lukewarm and fragrant with your afternoon coffee!
Sometimes I say…
“Oh, Mom,” and they make fun of me, but I think you all know what those words mean…
Texts and photos by Giorgio Grigor
