Today let’s prepare a really tasty dish together! The vol-au-vent with shrimp and ricotta mousse, a refined appetizer, easy to make and delicious!
They are served at buffets as appetizers or savory snacks, both hot and cold, however, they can also be prepared in a sweet version with various creams.
For those who don’t know, vol-au-vent originated in France. The original name is “vol-au-vent“, Italianized to voulevant and they are small light and flaky puff pastry baskets.
In French, vol-au-vent means “flight in the wind” but why are they called that? Probably because they are so light they could fly away with a puff of wind!
Usually filled with fish, vegetables, meat, mushrooms, and cheese-based mousse. The vol-au-vent are beautiful to present and delicious!
Today I propose a savory version with shrimp and ricotta mousse. Preparing them is simple and fun, the final result is a great satisfaction!
I cooked my vol-au-vent with the air fryer but you can also cook them with the traditional oven.
If you are looking for other easy and quick appetizer ideas here are some collections!
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: about 7/8 pieces
- Cooking methods: Electric Oven, Air Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 roll puff pastry (rectangular)
- 1 egg (whole, small size)
- 180 g ricotta (cow or mixed, well-drained)
- 3 shrimp
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- salt
- pepper (only if desired)
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- as needed lemon zest
- 8 shrimp (medium, or 4 large ones cut in half)
- as needed chopped parsley
Tools
- Baking tray
- Cookie cutters
- Immersion blender
- Parchment paper
- Immersion blender
- Bowl
Preparation
To prepare the vol-au-vent you will only need 2 ingredients, 1 roll of puff pastry and 1 egg.
On a work surface, roll out a sheet of puff pastry, leaving it on its parchment paper.
Cut out many discs trying to make as little waste as possible. You will need two cutters, one larger and one smaller.
I used cookie cutters. Coffee cups, jar lids, etc., will work fine too.
The larger the cutters, the fewer vol-au-vents you will get, and vice versa.
With one roll of puff pastry, I obtained 8 vol-au-vent using a 2.36 inches mold and a smaller one of 1.38 inches.
Once you have maximized the puff pastry roll, count all the discs obtained.
To make a single vol-au-vent you need 3 discs.
One will be the base and two will be cut with the slightly smaller cutter.
In this way, you will have two crowns to overlap on the base (see photo).
For example, if you obtained 18 discs from the puff pastry, you can make 6 vol-au-vent (18:3 = 6).
Before forming the individual vol-au-vent, break a whole egg into a bowl and beat it with a fork.
Now take a baking tray and line it with parchment paper.
Place a disc on the tray and brush with some beaten egg.
Take two more discs and use a smaller cutter to make a hole in the center.
Remove the center and overlap the obtained circle on the base. Brush this too with the egg.
Repeat the operation with the other disc and place the circle on top of the first crown. Brush again.
You have obtained the first vol-au-vent. Continue in the same way until all the discs are finished.
To cook the vol-au-vents, I used my hot air oven/fryer. In just 8-10 minutes at 392°F, they were ready!
If you don’t have an air oven/fryer, preheat the oven to 392°F and cook for about 10-15 minutes.
Be sure to keep an eye on the oven as cooking times may vary.
Once the vol-au-vents are nicely golden, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.
P.s. You see more in the photo because I made another recipe that I’ll show you soon 😉
Let’s prepare the filling. Clean the shrimp by removing the shell and intestine. Rinse well under water.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add a clove of garlic.
Sauté the shrimp just a few minutes on all sides. Adjust with salt and turn off the heat.
In an immersion blender, put the ricotta, a tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley, and some lemon zest.
Season with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt (and pepper if you like).
Finally, add 3 chopped shrimp by knife. Turn on the blender and blend until you get a cream.
With a teaspoon, slightly press down the bottom of the vol-au-vent that puffed up during cooking. Fill them with the ricotta mousse.
To decorate, place a shrimp on each vol-au-vent and sprinkle with some chopped parsley.
Et voilà! Your beautiful vol-au-vent are ready to conquer everyone!
Elegant and tasty, they will make a great impression!
I hope you enjoyed this recipe, come back to visit me soon!
Recipe and Photo by Gabry – all rights reserved
For decoration:
If the shrimp are very large buy only 4, you can cut them in half to decorate the vol-au-vent.
