In the Kitchen

I've spent a good deal of time in the kitchen this week.
For family night on Tuesday I cooked Oh, glo-RAY Spuh-Get-TAY!
Leeks, bacon, cushed tomatoes, basil, & garlic over spaghetti noodles.
Yesterday I made Chicken Tortellini Florentine soup and this wonderfully easy Bosc Pear & Mascarpone Folded Tart, for a friend who just had hip replacement surgery.
It's a recipe from Francis Mayes, and we adore it.
Needless to say, I made one for them and one for us.

I thought I'd share the recipe. We can all use more simple, tasty dessert recipes, right? :)
For pastry:
1 + cups of flour (flour always needs adjusting when I make pastry)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortning
1/4 c. ICED water
mix the flour and salt. cut in the shortning until it mix crumbly looking. add iced water (without ice) and mix thoroughly. refrigerate while working on filling.
(you could buy already made pastry and it would be even faster!)

Filling:
2-3 pears, washed and cored
2, 8 oz. containers of Mascarpone cheese
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/8 tsp lemon extract
1/8 c. sugar
+ sugar to sprinkle on crust before baking

Preheat oven to 350F. Slice pears thin wedges. Set aside. Mix Mascarpone with ginger, extract, and sugar. Set aside. Remove pastry dough from ice box and roll out to 1 & 1/3 the size of your pie plate. Position pastry in plate and smooth Mascarpone mix evenly over bottom. Arrange pear slices on top (they don't HAVE to be arranged, but Its simple to lay them in a slightly overlapping circle). Fold edges of dough over top. They probably won't come to the center. I like to arrange 6 more slices on top because it looks pretty, but it isn't in Mrs. Mayes recipe. Neither is sprinkling the top with a little bit of sugar to make it sparkle, but I do that too.
Bake it for 30 minutes (or until it is crusty and golden).

We slice it just like pie.

Let me know if you make it and what you think! Hope you love it as much as we do!