Crostata is a very popular Italian fruit tart that is eaten both for dessert and breakfast. When we visited Jo of My Home Food That’s Amore, she gave us some goodies to take home including two jars of homemade apricot jam made by a friend of hers. Thanks, Jo! It is those jars that I used for this apricot crostata. Crostata is made with pasta frolla, sweet shortcrust pastry. I served it as a dessert with a scoop of ginger and honey ice cream, and it was absolutely wonderful. Especially with a glass of passito, a dessert wine made from dried grapes that in this case was made of 80% moscato and 20% gewürztraminer. The latter goes very well with ginger. Once you know how to make shortcrust pastry (which takes some experience to get it nice and flaky), crostata is easy to make.

Ingredients

For a 27 cm (11″) pie

300 grams (2 cups) pastry flour

150 grams (10 1/2 Tbsp) cold butter

grated zest of 1 lemon

130 grams (2/3 cup) sugar

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

600 grams (2 cups) apricot jam

1 egg, beaten

Preparation

Combine the sifted flour, sugar, pinch of salt, and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor.

Process to mix.

Dice the butter and add to the flour mixture.

Process until the mixture looks like sand with some pea-sized pieces of butter.

Add the add yolks.

Process until the dough starts to come together. If it doesn’t, add another egg yolk or a tablespoon of cold water.

Put the pieces of dough on a sheet of plastic wrap.

Shape the dough into a log with your hands and wrap it in the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for half an hour to rest.

Butter a 27 cm (11″) pie form.

After the dough has rested, divide it into a big piece (about 2/3 to 3/4) and a small piece (1/4 to 1/3) and wrap the small piece in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Refrigerate the small piece.

Roll out the big piece of dough on a floured work surface (a wooden surface works best) until it is big enough for the bottom and sides of the pie shape (a circle with a diameter of about 32 cm / 13″).

Line the pie shape with the dough, using a rolling pin to even the edges. Refrigerate the pie shape with the dough for half an hour. This helps to prevent shrinkage.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF (not fan forced). After the dough has rested, pierce it all over with a fork.

Put the apricot jam in the pie shape and flatten the top with a spoon.

Roll out the small piece of dough and cut it into strips of about 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) wide with a pastry wheel.

Use the strips to cover the tart with a lattice pattern.

Brush the dough with the beaten egg.

Bake the tart for 45 minutes at 180ºC/350ºF (not fan forced).

Allow the tart to cool to room temperature before serving. Store under a cake dome at room temperature.

Icing sugar always makes a tart look nice.

Flashback

Lamb shoulder sous-vide with goat cheese is a great dish. The combination of lamb with goat cheese works very well, and the lamb shoulder cooked sous-vide is amazingly tender and flavorful.