BEING THANKFUL

We spent our first and second Thanksgiving in Italy at Ternana’s, having pizza. Last year we were in the states for Thanksgiving, having a very traditional, dysfunctional-family style meal. This year we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Italy, celebrating with other American expats. Maybe the secret to a wonderful holiday experience is to spend it with family….just not your own.

My job was to bring the pumpkin pies, and initially I’d planned to use my mom’s recipe using bourbon. But then a discussion on the Expats in Italy message board mentioned Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake, and of course I couldn’t resist trying something new! The recipe is at the bottom of this posting.

There were eleven of us for dinner….Larry and Shelly, who aren’t quite expats but are moving closer every day, their son and his wife, the wife’s parents, an American couple who’ve recently been posted to Libya by a large oil company, and our friend Judith.

We feasted on roasted turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes with gravy, and also sweet potatoes brought from Libya which were white, not orange. We also had rolls, waldorf salad, green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup AND canned onions on top! Oh, and date nut bread…reminding me that I should make some for holiday gifts.

For dessert we had the two pumpkin concoctions I brought plus a pecan pie and an apple pie that Judith had baked. The added treat for the apple pie was that we ate it New England style with a slice of CHEDDAR CHEESE!!!! Those of you who aren’t expats have no idea what a treat this was, but for expats, cheddar cheese has got to be the number one most requested, most missed food time of all times!

Is there even any need to say that we all ate until we were absolutely miserable? Man, everything was sooooooooo good! I can’t believe that Shelly and Larry managed to cook all of this food in their small kitchen, but they did. Next year they plan to have their new kitchen installed, but I can’t imagine that the food could be any better.

After dinner and dessert we loaded the cars with people and olives and drove to the frantoio to watch Larry and Shelly’s olives being pressed!



As always it was interesting to watch the process,


and when it was all done, we got the coolest party favor ever….a tin of oil to take home!


We’re thankful we have such wonderful friends, and we’re happy to have spent the day with them. We look forward to initiating the new kitchen next year!

Although the last thing most of you probably want to think of right now is Thanksgiving dinner or pumpkin pie. Because it was such a big hit though, I’m going to include it. Here’s the recipe:

BOURBON PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

CRUST:
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup pecans (1 3/4 oz), finely chopped
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Butter bottom and sides of 9” springform pan. Stir together crumbs, pecans, sugars, and butter in a bowl until combined well. Press crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and 1/2 inch up side of pan, then chill crust, 1 hour.

FOR FILLING:

1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbsp bourbon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

Make filling and bake cheesecake:Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, cream, vanilla, and bourbon in a bowl until combined. SET ASIDE.

Stir together granulated sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in large bowl. Add cream cheese and beat with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy and smooth, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium, then add pumpkin mixture and beat until smooth.

Pour filling into crust, smoothing top, then put springform pan in a shallow baking pan (in case springform leaks). Bake until center is just set, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool 5 minutes. (Leave oven on.)

For topping:

2 cups sour cream (20 oz)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp bourbon

Whisk together sour cream, sugar, and bourbon in a bowl, then spread on top of cheesecake and bake 5 minutes.

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 3 hours.

Chill, covered, until cold, at least 4 hours. Remove side of pan and bring to room temperature before serving. Can be chilled, covered, up to 2 days. Makes 12 to 14 servings.

Somewhere along the way I also found a recipe for Pumpkin Hazelnut Pie, and I thought this would be a nice combination of American and Italian, since hazelnuts are so common here. It was well received too, but I wasn’t as impressed with this recipe as I was with the cheesecake recipe. I f I make it again I may add a tablespoon or two of bourbon to it as well….

Pumpkin Hazelnut Pie

Single pie crust recipe for a 9” pie

1/3 cup ground hazelnuts
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp softened butter

2 eggs plus 1 additional yolk
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 Tbsp flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
¼ ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 400º. Roll out dough, prick with fork and bake for 10 minutes using pie weights.

Increase oven temperature to 450º. Combine hazelnuts, ¼ cup brown sugar and butter. Work into a paste and spread over the partially cooked pie shell. Bake 10 minutes.

Turn oven down to 325º.

Mix together eggs and yolk, pumpkin, flour, 2/3 cup brown sugar, spices, salt and cream. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 325º for 45 min.