Elana Horwich, home cook and founder of Meal and a Speil, (pronounced ShPEEL) has channeled the best of her Grandmother’s recipes with a modern twist for your home Passover Sedar. Her Italian-inspired charoset recipe (prounouned cHa-roset) is the delicious chopped fruit, nut and wine mixture on the Passover seder table which symbolizes the mortar between the bricks that the Jews laid while slaves in Egypt 3,000 years ago. It cooks only long enough to meld the flavors together but still resulting in a crunchy charoset that won’t look like applesauce.
Moscato Spice Charoset
2 Granny Smith apples
1 pear
1 ½ cup shelled walnuts
7 dried figs or 7 pitted prunes or a handful of raisins
8 pitted dates
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 orange, the juice and the zest
1 bottle of good Moscato (yes, it will be a bit bubbly) Note: There are many options for Kosher Moscato. Click here for a list.
Cut apples and pears into equal size large chunks.
Pulse in food processor until finely chopped, careful not to overdo it so they don’t become mushy. Put in a large bowl. (If you don’t have a food processor, this recipe can be a reminder of the times when we were slaves in Egypt. But the good news is, hand chopped food tasted better.)
Pulse the figs, prunes or raisins until they are finely chopped and add them to the apples.
Pulse the walnuts until they are finely chopped and add them to the fruit.
Zest the orange using a microplane grater, a zester or the small holes of a regular grater. Add to mixture.
Juice the orange into the food processor, along with the dates, cinnamon and cup of the Moscato. Pulse until fully pureed.
Add to the fruit and nut mixture. Stir.
Add another cup of Moscato to mixture and stir.
Put mixture into a cooking pot over medium heat until it reaches a boil. Then turn heat to low and let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
Put back into bowl and let cool mostly. Cover and put in fridge until ready for use.
Right before serving, add another “glug” of Moscato to the charoset for a little freshen up.
