Jam and Ricotta Crostata
Serves 8 • Prep 30 mins • Cooking 35 mins
Another absolute favourite of mine – the classic crostata is perfect for picnics, morning/afternoon teas or even pudding. And once you’ve got the hang of the pastry, the filling is a cinch. Feel free to leave out the ricotta step, pure jam is also pure gold. But I prefer my jam crostata’s with a soft pillow of vanilla-spiked ricotta.
What you’ll need
1 quantity sweet shortcrust pastry
1 cup jam of your choice
For the ricotta filling
1 cup ricotta cheese
¼ cup icing sugar
1 vanilla bean
3 eggs
For the filling, whisk together all ingredients until well combined. Place the jam in a small saucepan and gently heat.
To roll out the crostata, first cut away about 1/3 of the pastry and roll out the remaining 2/3 until a large disc about 4mm thick.
Gently transfer the pastry to line a 22cm fluted, loose-bottomed tart tin.
Trim excess, leaving a 1cm border and fold this down into the edge of the tin to ‘reinforce’ the crostata’s sides.
Finally, spoon the ricotta mixture across the crostata’s base and top with the jam.
Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into about 10 strips, arrange five of these across the top of the tart and then spin it around and criss-cross the remaining five strips in a lattice pattern on the other side.
Trim any excess, sprinkle with the caster sugar and place in the oven to cook for 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
