Pistachio and ricotta stuffed apricots on panettone recipe

Panettone - Telegraph

These are so simple and so good. A great way to use up panettone, too. To make the green colour of pistachios even more intense, you can soak the shelled nuts in boiling water first then scrape off the outer skin – a bit of a faff but worth it for the visual effect.

Timings

Prep time: 10 minutes, plus soaking time

Makes

20

Ingredients

• 20 apricots

• 1 cup of black tea

• 125g ricotta

• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract, or to taste

• 1-2 tsp honey

• Pinch of grated lemon zest

• 50g pistachios, finely chopped

• About 5 flat slices of panettone or sponge cake, about 1cm thick

• 60g plain chocolate, melted

Method

1. Soak the apricots in the tea until tender – overnight for very dry apricots, a couple of hours for ready-to-eat.

2. Mix the ricotta with the vanilla, honey to taste and the lemon zest.

3. Use a teaspoon to stuff the apricots with the ricotta mixture.

4. Roll the creamy edge of each apricot in the pistachios.

5. Cut the panettone slices into circles, stars or snowflakes, using a cookie cutter if you like. Spoon a little melted chocolate over each one and top with a stuffed apricot.