Preserve The Season: Homemade Apple Strudel Jam

My first recipe of 2019 is very simple.

It’s an in season homemade jam made with crunchy and scented apples where I added the flavor of the strudel cake.

Who knows Apple Strudel?

It has its roots in the 17th century and today is one national dishes of Austria. Very common in all Tyrol, you can find it also in the South Tyrol, the Italian part of this region. It’s a swirl of pastry and apple filling that is visible when you cut a slice. Apples are flavored with cinnamon, pine nuts, raisins and the aroma of the grated skin of the lemon. In one word: perfect.

The Food and Me

The origin of my love for preserves is clear. I grew with my beloved grandma Sara.
She was a great woman. And a great cook with a genuine passion for all vegetables and fruit. She cooked following the seasons: the only cuisine she has know was seasonal, she didn’t take in consideration any kind of ready-to-eat-foods.

I remember when I was a child I went in the garden to pick up the ripped harvest that was ready to be cooked. I could eat red, ripe and juicy tomatoes taking them directly from the plant. Often I could go with her when she went in the countryside close to Imola, the little town where I was born and raised. There I saw chickens and all the other farmyard’s animals. Then pigs and cows. I’m lucky to have this precious memories.

In these last months I thought about identity, home and roots. The foods we cook, at the same of the cookings we prefer, tell about our family histories much than we think.
For sure it’s true for me.

But sometimes you need to go back to move forward. So, here I’m. I have a vision for the next year of my food blog and it looks like a clean home kitchen full of light and ? where I want to re-start to cook my own family recipes. I think this the best way to introduce me to yourself, to share with you my traditions and habits.

The past and the future of T&CO

After the gloriously indulgent and festive month of December, it’s time to move on with the new T&CO. When my blog mates said me they wanted to start new projects, I admit I asked myself how much important this food project was for me. It has been the diary of 3 Italian friends, two expats and me in Italy. We have written about our lives, our fav places where to go to eat and we have written an English cookbook, Kitchen Notes.
In the last three years together, we did many things!

Now I’m alone. And I decided to take it as an opportunity to find my personal way to be a food blogger who loves to cook and write about food and the beautiful Italian city where I live, Bologna. The new Italian food capital. But I don’t want to be just an Italian food blogger, I need to express a stronger identity. I need to cook my “roots”.

What you’ll find at the blog?

✔️ My family recipes. Typical dishes of Bologna, where I live, and Romagna, where I was born. The seasonal and original recipes I developed. My life recipes: little gems that someone give me as a gift.

✔️ My life in Bologna and blogposts about my trips around Emilia-Romagna, my beautiful region.

My Homemade Apple Strudel Jam Recipe

Apples and grapes were two favorite fruits of my grandma.
My first 2019 recipe is dedicated to my origin and to her.

I created this recipe and I’m quite satisfy. Please, write me for any doubt or to say if you loved it.

It’s quite quick to make. I just have one tip: I choose two different kind of apples. The first one is a classic apple perfect to cook. But I opt for another one crunchy. In this way you’ll have also some delicious peaces of apple.

I love this apple preserve on the bread, to fill a crostata and, why not, with cheese.

Buona cucina, Monica

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Homemade Apple Strudel Jam Recipe

6-7 little jars

Golden Delicious apples, peeled and sliced, 1 kg
Pippin apples, peeled and sliced, 500 g
cane sugar, 200 g
1/2 lemon juice
a little of grated peel of a natural lemon
cinnamon powder, 3-4 g
natural vanilla, 1 teaspoon
pine nuts, 10 g
raisins, 20 g

Directions

Combine Golden Delicious apples, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and its grated skin, vanilla.

Cook slowly for 20 minutes. Add in Pippin apples. Cook slowly 10-12 minutes

Add in pine nuts and raisins, stir and cook just for few minutes or until tender.

Place jars into canner with simmering water, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil; process 10 minutes.

Remove jars and cool.