The Caramel Budino

The tone of the funeral was surprisingly upbeat, with humorous commentary from friends and family, one colleague noting that Busoni’s love of Renaissance art, by his own admission, had been matched only by his love of spaghetti Bolognese and caramel budino.
(Dan Brown, Inferno)

The character of Ignazio Busoni in Inferno by Dan Brown is crazy for spaghetti Bolognese and caramel budino. How could you blame him?

Caramel budino is universally known as crème caramel. It can be round or square, high or low, accompanied with strawberries, whipped cream, or cookies, but it is always delicious!

Pellegrino Artusi, the father of Italian cuisine, advises us to enjoy it with the aroma of vanilla, coriander, or coffee.

We have already spoken of spaghetti Bolognese, and maybe some of you have even tried the recipe.

For the budino, here is a recipe even more special: that of my mother who loves to prepare it for family parties!

Mom’s recipe for caramel budino:

Ingredients:

• 1 lt. of milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 5 cl of water
• 200 gr. of sugar
• 6 eggs
• 250 gr. of icing sugar

Preparation:

Put the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla pod and boil slowly.
Pour the water into a saucepan with the sugar, and boil over low heat, stirring constantly.
When the caramel turns light brown, turn off the heat and pour the caramel into molds.
Break the eggs into a bowl.
Add the sugar icing.
Beat the eggs and sugar with a whisk.
After the milk has boiled, remove the vanilla pod and strain it to remove the seeds.
Combine the warm milk with the egg mixture.
Put the ramekins in a baking dish, and fill it with boiling water up to a third of the molds.
Bake in a water bath at 180 degrees for 25–30 minutes until the cream is frozen solid.
Put the ramekins in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
Before serving the cream, turn it on a plate.

Absolutely do not eat the budino without first overthrowing it in a saucer (like many greedy, impatient people unfortunately do); otherwise, how could the sweet golden caramel dress the budino?

Finally, here is a little history of this fantastic dessert: It seems that the original recipe dates back to Roman times, when it was not prepared as a cream-flavored cake; it was later sweetened with honey, and we know that Cristoforo Colombo took it with him on his conquest of the New World.

But, in Italy, the budino caramellato it is also called Portuguese milk … the historical journey of this delight is really intricate!

Anyway, the success of this dessert is universal.

It has many variations and different names.

In Spain, it became a sweet cream usually accompanied by caramelized sugar.

In other Latin countries, it is also very popular, especially in Mexico. In Argentina and Uruguay and in some neighboring countries, it is usually known by the name dulce de leche.

The British enjoy it inside a shell-shaped pastry accompanied by nuts or fruit.

In Japan, it is found everywhere in supermarkets under the name purin.

Its French name has spread because there is a strong tradition of preparing crème caramel in the southern regions of France, especially in the city of Toulouse.