Recipe - Pear And Pistachio Puff Pastry Tartlets

3 small Pears; peeled, halved, cored
1 cup Essencia or other sweet
dessert wine
One half Vanilla bean
2/3 cup Shelled unsalted pistachios;
(about 3 ounces)
One half cup Sugar
3 tablespoon Unsalted butter; room
temperature
1 lg Egg
2 Frozen puff pastry sheets;
(one 17 1/4ounce package),
thawed
1 Egg; beaten to blend,
(glaze)
Finely chopped pistachios
Fresh mint leaves

The 1970s saw perhaps the biggest change in cooking in this century. That's
when a group of talented young chefs in France came up with "nouvelle
cuisine," emphasizing fresh ingredients, elegant presentation, and
interesting and unusual combinations of foods and flavors. American chefs
quickly imported it and made it into something uniquely their own. For our
take on this landmark in contemporary cooking, we've shaped purchased puff
pastry into individual tartlet, filled them with pistachio frangipane and
cut or sliced up pears, and topped it all off with a sweetwine glaze.

Combine pear halves and 1 cup dessert wine in heavy medium saucepan. Scrape
in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring wine to boil. Reduce heat,
cover and simmer until pears are just tender, turning occasionally, about
10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pear halves to paper towels and
drain well. Boil pear poaching liquid in saucepan until reduced to 2
tablespoons, about 7 minutes. Set glaze aside.

Finely grind 2/3 cup unsalted pistachios and sugar in processor. Add
unsalted butter and egg; blend just until filling is combined. (Can be
prepared 1 day ahead. Cover pears and nut filling separately and
refrigerate. Cover glaze and let stand at room temperature.)

Unfold pastry sheets on work surface; press out folds. Using 4 1/4inch
scalloped round cookie cutter, cut out four rounds from each sheet. Using 3
1/2inch round from cookie cutter, cut out one 3 1/2inch round from each
of four rounds (reserve 3 1/2inch rounds for another use); set pastry
rings aside. Brush egg glaze over outer edges of four 4 1/4inch solid
rounds. Pierce rounds all over with fork. Top each with one pastry ring.
Transfer pastries to baking sheet. Freeze 15 minutes. (Can be prepared 1
day ahead; cover and keep frozen).

Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake pastries 10 minutes, piercing centers with fork
if centers rise. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Spoon One fourth of nut filling into center of each pastry. Slice pear halves and
arrange atop filling, covering completely. Bake until pastries are golden
brown, about 20 minutes. Cool pastries at least 30 minutes and up to 1
hour. Brush pears with glaze. Sprinkle chopped pistachios around pears.
Garnish with fresh mint leaves and serve.

4 servings

Bon Appétit November 1993

Posted to recipeludigest by Sandy sandysno@pctech.net on Feb 26, 1998