Pancetta, Pear — Pecan Puffs — The Easter Table That Keeps Growing

The lake does what the lake does. The blog gets written when the words come. The Thursday soup gets ladled. The grandchildren get fed. The rhythm holds. The rhythm is, I think, the great gift of this period of life — the kids stable enough that I can settle, my own grief settled enough that I can produce, the kitchen open enough that the family can come and go. Sophie's daughter Ingrid is walking now. She walked across the kitchen and grabbed my leg and looked up at me and said "Mor" — the Swedish for grandmother. Sophie is teaching her Swedish, or as much Swedish as Sophie remembers, which is enough for the basics. Ingrid said "Mor" with the perfect Swedish O, the rounded back-of-the-mouth O that only a child still learning sounds can pronounce. I cried. Sophie cried. The dog watched us with the patience of a saint. Sophie is pregnant again. Another baby. Due next year. I will be a great-grandmother of two. The cheat sheet on the refrigerator is going to need updating. I have a small piece of graph paper taped inside the pantry door with a family tree on it. I update it after every birth, every wedding, every death. The paper is folded at the corners now and slightly yellowed at the edges. The tree has many branches. The branches keep coming. I cooked Smoked salmon platter this week. Russ Kendall's smoked salmon arranged on a board with capers, dill, red onion, cream cheese, rye crackers. Easter brunch. The lake's gift on the table. Damiano. The kitchen back-room I have known for over twenty years. The pot. The ladle. The faces. Gerald. The work continues. The work is the same work it has been since 2005. The continuity is, I think, the gift the Damiano Center gives me as much as the gift I give it. We hold each other up. Erik's house is empty now. The Fifth Street house has been sold (the new owners are a young couple from Hermantown, they are kind, they have promised to take care of it; they will paint the walls and tear up the carpet and the kitchen will become someone else's kitchen and I have made my peace with this, mostly). Erik's own house in Lakeside is being cleared out. I helped on Saturday. I packed Erik's coffee mugs. I held one for a long minute. I put it in the box. It is enough. Paul is not here. Mamma is not here. Pappa is not here. Erik is not here. They are all here in the kitchen, in the smell, in the taste, in the wooden spoon and the bread pans and the marble slab. The dead are not where the body went. The dead are in the kitchen. I have been reading the Bible more lately. Not in any new way. The same passages I have known since confirmation class in 1977. The Sermon on the Mount. The 23rd Psalm. The book of Ruth. Whither thou goest, I will go. The repetition of the verses is its own form of prayer. The verses do not change. I change. The change is held by the unchanged words. It is enough.

The smoked salmon board was already on the table — Russ Kendall’s fish, the capers, the dill, the red onion fanned out the way I’ve done it for years — but Easter brunch wants something warm alongside it, something that feels like a little celebration in itself. These Pancetta, Pear & Pecan Puffs were exactly that: golden and a little sweet, a little salty, the kind of thing you set out and watch disappear before you’ve finished pouring the coffee. With Sophie and Ingrid at the table, with a new baby coming, with the branches of that old family tree still adding themselves in pencil — it felt right to make something that looked as joyful as the morning felt.

Pancetta, Pear & Pecan Puffs

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 18 min | Total Time: 38 min | Servings: 24 puffs

Ingredients

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 3 oz pancetta, finely diced
• 1 small ripe pear, peeled, cored, and finely diced
• 1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped and toasted
• 2 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• Flaky sea salt, for finishing

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cook pancetta. In a small skillet over medium heat, cook diced pancetta until crisp, about 4–5 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate and let cool.
3. Make the filling. In a small bowl, stir together the softened cream cheese, honey, thyme, and black pepper until smooth. Fold in the cooked pancetta, diced pear, and toasted pecans.
4. Cut the pastry. Unfold the puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface and roll gently to smooth any creases. Cut into 24 equal squares, roughly 2 inches each.
5. Fill and fold. Place a small spoonful of filling in the center of each square. Bring two opposite corners together and press gently to seal, or simply fold into a triangle, pressing edges firmly to close.
6. Egg wash and season. Arrange puffs on the prepared baking sheet. Brush each with beaten egg and finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
7. Bake. Bake for 16–18 minutes, until puffed and deep golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the pan before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 82 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 6g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 105mg