Ricotta Crostata - Ricotta Pie

Pastry

Ingredients

150 grams butter
30 grams icing sugar
100 grams flour
grated rind of one lemon

Method

Leave butter out to soften (overnight in winter or a few hours in summer) so it can be worked easily into the flour.

Put flour onto board and grate the rind into the flour. Mix the flour, icing sugar, grate in rind and then work in the softened butter The dough will be very short and crumbly. You do not get a smooth fine dough, it is a biscuit texture which is then sprinkled into the pan and pressed down and around the sides.

Use spring form pan, 25 cm, well greased. Press well into the pan and take it half way up. Make sure the sides and the base of the pan are well covered so there is no leakage..

Do not pre-cook the pastry.

Filling

Ingredients

1 1/2 kg ricotta
Icing sugar
3 eggs seperated
sugar
milk
80 grams candied fruit diced (mixed fig, apricot,, citrus, mandarin/orange)
50 grams toasted almonds, chopped

Method

Make pastry cream as per strudel method.

Combine ricotta with icing sugar, pastry cream, candied fruit (candita) , almonds (Some people also add a yolk but the pastry cream in enough)

Beat egg whites stiffly in a bowl which has first been wiped with a tiny bit of lemon juice and then dried.. This stops the white seperating and helps make them stiff.

When stiff fold through the ricotta mixture. If your eggs are big you may find that you don’t need to use all the egg white.

Set oven at 250 degree C

Spoon ricotta mixture into crostada and gently spread out. Don't put up too high, keep within the pastry

This can be done in a tart form but then the taste is different. In the high pan it's more filling to crust which is the way the pie should be.