More on Mostarda
August 3rd, 2007
Notice! Important correction to the ingredients
If you’ve already had all you want, move along, there’s nothing here to see. But I have just started making this year’s mostarda and after some further study I’ve slightly altered the recipe and taken some photos. Clicking on the photos should take you to a full-sized version.
Why post it again? Because this is turning out to be the most requested recipe of all so far. I haven’t served it to anyone who hasn’t just loved it.
This is what it looks like ready to cook. The peaches have been peeled by dunking them into boiling water for 30 seconds and then into a bowl of cold water, after which the skins slip right off. I then remove any imperfection revealed.
Here’s the new recipe:
1.3 kilos (46 ounces) of ripe peaches, which when peeled and stoned will be close to 1 kilo of fruit– cut into chunks
.5 kilo sugar (1 pound)
5 dried red chili peppers (peperoncini) broken in two
1/3 to 1/2 cup of cider vinegar (80-120 ml aceto di mele)
pinch of salt
1 packet of pectin for making jams
Clean and boil at least five sealable canning jars and lids as well as a ladle, tongs and a funnel if you have one. I finally found a wide mouthed funnel, and it’s copper! Lovely. I had always had to make a jury-rigged funnel out of aluminum foil.
Put all the ingredients except the vinegar into a heavy cooking pot with plenty of extra space for boiling, and it will look like the photo above. Stir in the vinegar until it tastes the way you would like it to. I find it depends on the peaches. Very sweet ones need more.
Bring the mixture, stirring all the time, to a boil that is so vigorous that you can’t flatten it by stirring it. Reduce the heat to keep it just at that boiling point, and stir once in a while, for five minutes.
This is the mostarda cooking and just ready to start boiling.
Arrange a clean kitchen towel on a nearby work counter and one by one, remove a sterile jar, drain it, fill it using the funnel and making sure to include a chili, wipe the jar rim with a damp paper towel, and screw the lid on until just closed. When they’re all filled, remove any extra jars from the sterilizing pot and using tongs, put the filled jars into the pot. Boil them for five minutes. Using tongs again, remove the filled jars and with two pot holders, screw the lids down as tight as you can, then leave the jars upside down to cool for a few minutes. Up-right the jars and let them cool completely. You should hear “pop-pop-pop” sounds as the lids seal and form a vacuum. Any that don’t should be refrigerated until use.
Let them sit at least 2 weeks to get the proper flavor and then you can open one, spoon into a dish and drizzle balsamic vinegar over it. Eat with a good aged cheese– aged pecorino is what we like here, but I can’t imagine that any mature cheese wouldn’t be good. It’s eaten with a fork and knife without bread or crackers.
Entry Filed under: Food, Italy, Preserving, Beauty, kitchen stuff
4 Comments Add your own
1. Barbara | August 5th, 2007 at 12:22 am
What was the change…1 packet of pectin instead of 2?
BTW, do you have alarger font? thisone is pretty samll, at least for me!
2. admin | August 5th, 2007 at 9:43 am
No, the quantity of sugar and peperoncini. I had no failures from last year, but in researching preserving I found that this is the amount of sugar guaranteed to be safe, and therefore altered the amount of vinegar, too. I discovered that if there wasn’t a pepper in each of the bottles, it lost it’s piquancy and became funky jam.
I do not know why it bolded the whole recipe! I tried to undo it several times, but it’s stubborn. Friday I bought 10 kilos of peaches. Avanti!
3. Barbara | August 6th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I’m trying to work up the courage to start this project. Today’s market day, so maybe I’ll take the plunge, providing I can find the pepperoncini…I don’t have any of the long ones. Wonder if I can find them at the market as well..or do I have to dry them myself??
Regrading the bold type…sometimes blogs seem to have a mind of their own; I’ve experienced the same problems!
4. admin | August 6th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Barb, I think you can use any powerful peperoncino. These are just prettier than the tiny ones, but those have a lot of power, too. The peperoncini can be dried or fresh, but should be mature. They’re in my market now.
Friday, Olga and I went to a peach orchard and bought 5 chili for her and 10 chili for me. I did all the fuzzy ones yesterday, just peeled, sliced and frozen in 1 chilo bags– flat so they thaw quicker. Then when the weather goes to hell I can do whatever I want with them— jam, mostarda, pie, cobbler, tarts. There will shortly be a tart recipe I came up with recently that was easy and delish.
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