Quince paste: make cotognata now for Christmas cheese boards
Quinces are at their best this month. Cook them into cotognata this week and you will have a jewel-coloured present for every cheese lover by Advent.
My quince tree is the last thing in the orchard to let go of its fruit. By early November the quinces are fat, golden and furred, and one bowl of them on the kitchen table scents the whole house. Raw they are hard as stones and far too sour to eat. Cooked slowly with sugar they turn from cream to deep amber and set into cotognata, the quince paste my nonna kept in a biscuit tin from autumn to Easter.
That is why I make it now. Quince paste needs a few days to set and dry, then it keeps for months, so a batch made this week is cut, wrapped and tied long before the first Advent candle. It costs very little, it looks beautiful on a cheese board, and it is the present people ask me for again.
In Sweden you will find quinces at good greengrocers and market halls through November. If you grow a Japanese quince shrub, its small, knobbly fruit is edible once cooked. It is even sourer and richer in pectin than the true quince, so mix it half and half with apple.
Choosing and preparing quinces
- Ripeness: choose fruit that is fully yellow and smells of honey and roses. A little green is fine, the paste will just be paler.
- Fuzz: rub off the grey down with a dry tea towel before you start.
- Bruises: cut them away. Quinces bruise easily and brown fast once cut, so work quickly or keep pieces in water with lemon.
- Quantity: 1.5 kg of quinces fills a 20 cm square tin, enough for six to eight gifts.
How to make cotognata
Wash the quinces, quarter them and put them in a large pan with the peel and cores still on, because both are full of pectin. Cover with water and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes until a knife slides in easily. Lift the fruit out, keep the cooking water, then peel and core the quarters and purée the flesh until smooth.
Weigh the purée and add the same weight of sugar, or a little less if you like it sharper, plus the juice of a lemon. Cook over a low heat in a wide, heavy pan, stirring often, for 45 minutes to an hour and a half. It is ready when it is a deep orange-red, very thick, and a spoon dragged across the base leaves a clean path that does not close. Take care: thick purée spits hot sugar, so use a long wooden spoon and keep your sleeves down.
Pour it into a tin lined with lightly oiled baking paper and smooth the top. Leave it uncovered in a cool, dry room for two to four days until firm enough to cut cleanly, turning it out and over once.
Bella's tip: Do not pour away the cooking water. Boil it with the peels and cores for 20 minutes, strain, then boil the liquid with sugar (about 750 g per litre) until it sets on a cold saucer. You get a clear, rosy quince jelly from what most people throw out, and a second gift for free.
Your cotognata calendar
- This week: Buy the quinces and cook the paste.
- Days 2 to 4: Let it dry uncovered, turning it once, until it cuts cleanly.
- Mid-November: Cut into slabs, wrap in baking paper and keep in an airtight tin somewhere cool, or in the fridge.
- Week before Christmas: Tie up with string and add a card saying which cheese to eat it with.
How to give it, and what to eat it with
I cut slabs about 10 by 5 cm, wrap them in baking paper and tie them with plain string. Smaller squares rolled in caster sugar become quince sweets, a little like French pâte de fruits; give those a few more days to dry so they stay neat. Kept cool and well wrapped, the paste lasts for several months. If you ever see mould on it, throw it away.
- Hard sheep cheese: aged pecorino or Spanish Manchego, the classic match for membrillo.
- Piedmont cheeses: a mature toma or a crumbly Castelmagno.
- Swedish cheese: Västerbottensost or a well-aged prästost, salty enough to stand up to the sweetness.
- Breakfast: thin slices on buttered toast, which is how my nonno ate it.
What to pour
- Barbera d'Asti: Bright acidity cuts through the paste and a nutty toma. My usual, of course.
- Moscato d'Asti: Light, sweet and gently fizzy, lovely with quince and a blue cheese.
- Tawny port: Its dried-fruit, nutty flavours suit aged hard cheeses after dinner.
Make one batch this week and you have Christmas presents for the neighbours, the hosts and the friend who has everything, plus a slab for your own cellar shelf. Nothing else I make in November gives so much for one quiet afternoon at the stove.
