Culinary tours to Italy led by a native Italian
  • CULINARY TOURS
    • AMALFI
    • CHIANTI
    • CALABRIA
    • SICILY
  • CUSTOM ADVENTURES & PRIVATE TOURS
    • Private Tours >
      • BOLOGNA
      • CHRISTMAS IN TUSCANY
      • PUGLIA
      • ROME
      • TUSCANY
      • VENETO
  • Zoom Cooking Classes
  • MY COOKBOOKS
"If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?" - Martin Scorsese

Crostata with Ricotta and Lemon Cream

3/27/2020

9 Comments

 
Picture
I have been making jam crostatas for over 20 years now. If there's a recipe I feel I have perfected, it's the crostata. It never lets me down, and anyone who has ever tasted it, loves it!

It's all about the crust, once you have a handle on that, the filling is up to you and you can get creative. See pics below of various fillings.I've made this crust and topped it with all sorts of jams and Nutella. But the most decadent of them all is definitely with ricotta and cream. You see, you can make it with just the cream, bake the crust and top it with fruit, and that's great. Or you can make it with just ricotta, and that's great too, bake it and you got yourself a great old fashioned ricotta tart. But combine the cream WITH ricotta, and my oh my, you got a desert worthy of being served for parties, holidays and even as a birthday cake! It is a bit of work, sure, but the satisfaction of biting into a piece of this with a great cup of espresso is worth it! 

Ingredients
Pastry Cream:

1 lemon peel
2 1/4 whole milk
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
5 egg yolks (save the whites for an egg while omelet) 
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons flour, sifted
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

Ingredients for the crust: 
11 tablespoons butter, at room temperature for several hours
2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 ½ cups flour
Zest of 1 orange or 1 lemon
2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of salt
1 to 2 tablespoons milk ​(only if needed, see step 3 below) 

Directions for pastry cream:
1. Wash the lemon and with a pairing knife gently remove the peel  (as if peeling an apple), making sure you don’t remove the pith of the lemon (the white part under the peel) as that is bitter.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk with the lemon peel to a light boil. 
3. In the stand mixer, or using the handheld mixer, mix the egg yolks and sugar until well blended, add vanilla. 
4. Sift the flour over egg mixture and blend.
5. Remove the milk from the heat. With the mixer on low, slowly add about one cup of the hot milk to the egg mixture. Slowly continue adding all the milk. (You do this slowly as you don't want to scramble the eggs with the hot milk.) 
6. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan. With the heat on low, gently cook the cream for several minutes until it thickens up to pudding consistency. 
7. Transfer cream to a bowl, place plastic wrap directly above it to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until you prepare the crust. 

Directions for crust:
PREHEAT OVEN AT 350 Degrees F. 

1. Mix soft butter with sugar. Add egg and egg yolk and mix well.
2. Slowly add flour, it will look dry and crumbly but it will come together nicely. Add the zest and baking powder and a dash of salt.
3. If dough appears dry, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk. You should only need to do this is your butter is not soft enough, or you are using smaller eggs. 
4. Invert crust on a slightly floured surface and work the dough until it comes together in a nice round ball.
5. Cut about 1/3 of the dough and set aside for topping.
6. Press the remaining 2/3 of dough into a 12-inch pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray for baking. (If you are not confident about being unable to remove the crostata from the pan after baking, use a tart pan with a removable bottom)
7. Poke the crust with a fork at least 12-15 times, this will prevent any air bubbles from forming while baking.

8. When the pastry cream is cooled, remove the lemon peel and add 1 cup of ricotta to the cream and gently fold together.
​
9. Evenly spread cream and ricotta mixture over crust. 
10. With a rolling pin, roll out remaining dough and cut 8-10 equal strips of dough about ½ inch wide. Top the crostata with strips.
11. Bake crostata for 45-50 minutes, until firm and the lattice topping is golden.
12. Cool completely before inverting crostata in a serving dish, dust with powdered sugar.
Picture
Picture
Here, the crostata has been pressed with my hands into the pan.
Picture
Scoring the crostata with a fork, as above, prevents air bubbles from forming while cooking.
Picture
Here it is with blueberry jam. It's so good when you use high quality jam! While the ricotta and cream one takes 45 - 50 minutes, with jam, it only takes 35.
Picture
And with Nutella? OMG! With Nutella, you only need to bake it for about 33 minutes. The filling is much drier than creamy ricotta and cream so it bakes much faster. These are all made with the same crust recipe!
SHARING IS CARING! CLICK LINKS BELOW TO SHARE! 
Share
9 Comments
Judie Fitzpatrick
4/1/2020 11:20:42 am

Crostata recipe:
Do you pre bake pastry before pouring in lemon cream and ricotta ?
What is baking temp (Fahrenheit, pls!)

Reply
Francesca
4/1/2020 11:33:22 am

Hi Judie, I'm sorry I neglected to mention the temp! It's a 350F, I just added that line on the recipe. Thank you for catching that!

Reply
Francesca
4/1/2020 02:55:18 pm

Judie, you do not pre-bake the crust before adding the cream and ricotta mixture.

Reply
Rosa
4/1/2020 12:02:54 pm

Hi I didn’t really understand do I boil the peeling of the lemon with the milk or the lemon it’s self?
Thank you

Reply
Francesca
4/1/2020 02:56:23 pm

Ciao Rosa, yes, you boil the lemon peel with the milk in order to infuse the milk with the lemon flavor. Then it gets discarded. Let me know if you have other questions. - Francesca

Reply
Gianna
4/1/2020 03:29:53 pm

I remember a pie we had at my grandparents for Easter. It was made with wheat filling?
Do you have a recipe?

Reply
Gianna
4/5/2020 08:33:52 am

Hi Gianna, I know which pie you are talking about, unfortunately, I do not have a recipe for it on my blog right now, perhaps in the future.

Reply
Mary Beth Krafcik
4/2/2020 01:41:34 pm

Ciao Francesca! I have 11 oz. of lemon curd (in a jar--not my creation) left over from another recipe. Can I mix it with the ricotta for the filling? Mille Grazie. BTY, I am definitely going to purchase your cookbook on Amazon. Mary Beth

Reply
Francesca
4/5/2020 08:33:08 am

Hi Mary Beth, I can't say that I have ever tried using curd instead, but it's worth a shot! You might need a bit more of ricotta since the cream ends up being more than 11 oz. Let me know how it works out!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Hi there, thanks for visiting my blog! Here you will find recipes, short stories, tales, rants and whatever else is on my mind with regards to food, Italy, travel and along those lines. Drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

AS SEEN IN

Picture

MORE FROM US

BLOG
CONTACT
ABOUT
TESTIMONIALS

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL

francesca@thelazyitalian.com

LEGAL

COOKIES
PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright ©  2020 - Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures, LLC

Photo used under Creative Commons from Michael Stern
  • CULINARY TOURS
    • AMALFI
    • CHIANTI
    • CALABRIA
    • SICILY
  • CUSTOM ADVENTURES & PRIVATE TOURS
    • Private Tours >
      • BOLOGNA
      • CHRISTMAS IN TUSCANY
      • PUGLIA
      • ROME
      • TUSCANY
      • VENETO
  • Zoom Cooking Classes
  • MY COOKBOOKS