Silky. Cold. The kind of thing you eat slowly because it deserves it.
Budino — Italian pudding, set and cool, served in small cups — is one of those desserts that sounds unassuming until you eat it. Then you understand why every trattoria in Sicily has a version. It's not complicated. It doesn't need to be. The almond does the work.
Almond pudding, silky and cold.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Tutto Sicilia Almond Cream
- 500ml whole milk
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 7g gelatin
- To serve: toasted almond flakes, crumbles of cookies, a thread of honey, or fresh berries, a powdering of cocoa..
Instructions
- Mix and soak gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes until bloomed.
- Warm milk in a saucepan over medium heat until steaming but not boiling.
- Stir in almond cream, sugar, and vanilla until completely smooth.
- Add blooned gelatin to the warm milk. Stir until melted.
- Pour into 4 small cups or moulds. Cool slightly, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.
- To serve: run a thin knife around the edge and turn out onto a plate, or eat directly from the cup.
- Top with toasted almonds, cookie crumbles, a powdering of cocoa and a thread of honey poured a filo.
Nonna's Notes
She made this for anyone who needed something gentle. A cold, quiet, very good pudding is a form of care. Make it for someone.
Using almond cream instead of ground almonds shortcuts the process without shortcutting the flavour. The cream is already smooth, already intensely almond, already doing everything you'd spend an hour coaxing out of blanched and blended nuts. You stir it into warm milk, add a little honey, a touch of vanilla, and set it with gelatin. That's the whole thing.
Make it before dinner for the easiest impressive dessert in your repertoire. It sets in the fridge in about two hours and comes out of the cup like a small, beautiful Sicilian secret.
This is the dessert that proves you don't need technique. You need good ingredients and a little patience with the fridge.
