Elegant Tahini Sauce

M-J’s Simple Recipe for Elegant Tahini Sauce
Sesame paste mixed with lemon juice, water, salt and the merest hint of garlic powder makes an elegant tahini dip or sauce for mezedes, or pre-prandial appetisers.

Use this elegant and simple tahini sauce as a dip for flat-breads, steamed cauliflower, celery, other fresh vegetables, and fried potatoes. Optionally, you may drizzle olive oil over the tahini.
People find tahini sauce very pleasing in the summer months, and it is economical to make, since the sesame paste expands greatly when mixed with water and lemon juice.

Courtesy of M-J de Mesterton

Italian Easter Pie: Torta di Pasqua

Happy Easter

Torta di Pasqua

Puff pastry or short-crust pie dough, sufficient to line and cover an 11-inch pie-plate (pie tin)

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 lbs. of ricotta cheese, well-strained to remove all liquid

1/2 lb. mild or hot Italian sausage, sliced and lightly fried in olive oil

8 to 10 slices of prosciutto ham, coarsely chopped

1/2 lb. of diced mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons of chopped or dried parsley

Freshly ground pepper, and salt, to taste

One egg-yolk mixed with one tablespoon of water

Prepare your pastry (see M-J’s Elegant Apple Pie recipe). Beat the eggs into the ricotta cheese, and add the rest of the ingredients. Roll out the pastry or pie dough, and line the pie-pan with one-half of it. Pour filling into the dough-lined pan, and lay the rest of your dough on top of it, sealing, trimming, and crimping the edges. Brush the top with the egg-yolk and water mixture.  You may also cut interesting shapes out of extra dough and apply them to the top of the pie. Make a few pretty slits in the top of the crust to create steam-vents, and bake in a moderately hot 350* oven for forty-five minutes to an hour, until the top of Easter Pie is golden. Serve Torta di Pasqua either warm or at room temperature. This recipe is adequate for 8 people.

~~Copyright M-J de Mesterton