Aletria (Portuguese Christmas Dessert)
Creamy, sweet and pudding-like this Portuguese dessert is made with angel hair pasta and hinted with lemon and cinnamon spice for a most memorable holiday dessert that can be enjoyed any time.
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
- 6 angel hair, or capellini, pasta nests about 8½ oz (245g), gently untangled
- 4½ cups whole milk, plus more if needed
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 lemon rind about a 3-inch (7.5cm) piece
- 4 tbsp butter
- ground cinnamon, as garnish
Instructions
- Gently untangle the angel hair pasta and set aside, don't worry if they break.
- In a medium bowl, beat ½ cup (120 ml) milk with the egg yolks to combine. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan over moderate heat, add the remaining 4 cups (1 L) of milk and water. Heat just until the mixture begins to boil, then add the sugar, lemon rind and butter to the saucepan. Stir gently until the sugar dissolves (you'll no longer feel the grittiness of the sugar at the bottom of the pan), about 5 minutes. Remove the lemon rind and discard.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the pasta, stir to mix well. Cook the pasta, stirring often, until tender about 6-7 minutes. Taste. If the pasta still has a slight crunch, cook for a minute more. If the pasta appears to have absorbed too much liquid, add more milk- just enough to give the pasta a little longer to cook and absorb until tender.
- Meanwhile, temper the egg mixture by very slowly streaming in 3 tablespoons (45 ml) ofthe hot milk from the pot while simulataneously and vigorsously stirring to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Mix well.
- Lower the heat under the pot to a simmer and slowly add the tempered eggs to pot, while continuing to quickly stir. Continue stirring until warmed through, less than a minute. Turn off the heat. The mixture should appear very loose. Note that it will begin to thicken almost immediately off the heat and will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Pour the pasta mixture into a rectangular 2.2-quart (2-L) baking dish. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon - many families add the cinnamon in a lattice design, and other families with use holiday cut outs or doilies to make more intricate cinnamon designs.
- Plan let this sit at room temperature for sevrral hurs in advance of servng. Serve by cutting or scooping into individual serving dishes. Refrigerate leftovers.