Fantasy Vol-au-vent

Fantasy vol-au-vent are delicious appetizers that you can fill with various stuffings according to personal taste and the ingredients you have available. Here I propose a version with an Italian-style filling, which includes the use of ricotta and vegetables, but remember that you can vary the recipe as you like.

Ingredients

• 250 g of ready-made puff pastry
• 200 g of ricotta
• 100 g of fresh spinach (or other vegetables to taste)
• 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg (for brushing the vol-au-vent)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Nutmeg to taste (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. Start preheating the oven to 200° C.
2. Roll out the puff pastry and with a specific pastry cutter or a glass create circles of about 8 cm in diameter. Two circles of pastry will be needed for each vol-au-vent.
3. From half of the circles, cut out a smaller circle in the center, to form rings of pastry.
4. Place the whole circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush them with the beaten egg.
5. Carefully place a pastry ring on top of each whole circle, brush this with egg too, and bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the vol-au-vent are puffed up and golden.
6. In the meantime, sauté the spinach in a pan with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt until it is wilted. Let cool and squeeze out the excess water.
7. In a bowl, mix the ricotta with the grated Parmesan, add the spinach, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
8. Once cooked, remove the vol-au-vent from the oven and let them cool down. Once cooled, stuff them with the ricotta and vegetable mixture.
9. Serve your fantasy vol-au-vent hot or at room temperature.

Curiosity

The name “vol-au-vent” means “fly in the wind”, highlighting the lightness and flakiness of the puff pastry that composes it. This delicious appetizer has French origins, but in Italy, we have adopted it with taste, often personalizing the filling with typical ingredients of our cuisine.