Gran Pavesi le Sfoglie Classiche

Here’s another crispy snack from our little local Co-op in Switzerland. It’s a crispy Italian cracker for serving a fancy apéro snack... or for dipping in my handy homemade sour cream and chive lockdown dip (see the previous post).

Not a lot of taste apart from a faint air of water biscuit: a harder bite than that and a hearty satisfying crunch. But they do taste good with the dip. I’m sure if I could be bothered to decorate one of these crackers with a slice of cucumber, some salmon mousse and a caper that would work pretty well too. Although I don’t fancy salmon mousse, and the Chef won’t eat capers (he’s so picky!) so we might swap out (as they say these days), or perhaps change up, our own choice of ingredients.

I wonder how they make the not quite square shapes come out apparently random? Probably squirted out of an extruder.

2024 Update: More recent packaging features cream cheese with fig and basil leaves, and hummus with avocado and a scattering of sesame seeds. I find these little crispy snacks work extremely well with unsalted butter and a little honey sriracha drizzle. Very nice.

Pan Chips al Naturale

This Italian crispy snack was found in Switzerland, and I chose it simply because it looked so unlike most other crispy snacks we've tried.

Cotte al Forno (baked) says the packet, Golose sfogliatine croccanti (delicious crispy puffs). Baked perhaps, but not puffs. These little squares are in fact spectacularly flat. But then sometimes it seems to me that flat is very popular in Italy.

I provided myself with dip in advance because I thought these might need a little help in the taste department. It's a bit like eating a water biscuit  flavoured with olive oil (extra virgin of course) and scattered with salt. Quite nice in a slightly dull fashion.

I got sour cream and chive dip (my favourite) but in fact I might have been better to try hummus because these little squares or slightly-diamond-shapes remind me a little of the flat breads they serve at the local Turkish restaurant with the meze.

You know, the taste is sort of dull but I find myself rather liking it with or without the dip. Pretty good in fact. I'd really like to try one of the other flavours. Rosemary perhaps. Not so sure about the Bacon flavour... but I've been wrong before and probably will be again.

It's a shame these little squares are so fragile. An awful lot of them are broken and I don't think that has anything to do with their long journey to the UK. I notice that the tiny type on the front of the packet tells us that the product image is for illustration purposes only. So perhaps all this breakage is quite normal.

The back of the packet gives two websites for further information: www.onebreadfactory.it (which seems an odd name for an Italian company), and www.panchips.it. The first address defaults to the second, which truth be told does not give up much information except that there are six different Pan Chips flavours.

And because it is spring here's a photograph I took this week of some blossom. I don't know which of the many flowering cherries this is. It was planted by the side of the brook years ago and seems quite happy, but it's far too close to the great big weeping willow you can see in the background.