Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
Turn your oven on when the weather starts to cool down. This tart with adorable baby pears is the first thing on my list. I plan to bake from it all fall and winter long. What to bake right after that—a hazelnut cake, or one with apple chunks and apricot jam swirls? Cinnamon cookies, or honey-scented almond biscotti? Chocolate cake sprinkled with the last of the summer’s berries or individual rice pudding tarts? What happy choices.
Recipes excerpted with permission from Torta della Nonna Emiko Davies, published by Hardie Grant Books
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Crostata di ricoa e pere coscia
RICOTTA AND BABY PEAR TART
Ricotta crostata is a favourite dessert in Southern Tuscany, which borders the region of Lazio. Popular versions are the ones dotted with chocolate chips or layered with lipsmacking sour cherry jam or compote made from visciole, sour cherries, a well-known dessert of Rome’s old Jewish ghetto.
I have always loved the combination of ricotta and pear, and came up with this version that uses poached baby pears (known as pere coscia in Italian) – yellow skinned, a little firmer and crunchier than regular pears – which can be found all over the local farmers’ markets around Tuscany in the summer. This very simple dessert is not overly sweet and is pretty enough to present to guests. Once baked, the tart is best when left to settle overnight in the fridge and eaten the next day – chilled if it’s summer, and room temperature otherwise.
Serves 8
icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting (optional)
POACHED PEARS
7–9 baby pears (see note)
55 g (2 oz/1⁄4 cup) sugar
PASTRY
250 g (9 oz/1 2⁄3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
100 g (3 1⁄2 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
125 g (4 1⁄2 oz/1⁄2 cup) cold butter, chopped
pinch of salt
1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk
FILLING
500 g (1 lb 2 oz/2 cups) ricotta
100 g (3 1⁄2 oz) caster (superfine)
sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract, or 1⁄2 vanilla bean, split lengthways and seeds
scraped
2 eggs
Peel the baby pears. Leave the stems on (I don’t core them, as they are so small and tender they don’t need it). Slice about 5 mm (1⁄4 in) off the bottom of the pear, so that they have flat bottoms to sit on. Roughly chop the pear offcuts and leave aside to add to the ricotta mixture.
If you’re making this dish with regular-sized pears, peel and slice them into quarters and remove the core (if they are particularly large pears, you can slice into eighths).
Slide the pears into a saucepan of simmering water (just enough to cover the pears) with the sugar to add a touch of sweetness to them. Cook for 15 minutes, or until they are just tender. Remove the pears, drain and let them cool.
To make the pastry, combine the flour, sugar and butter in a bowl. Using your fingers, rub together until there are no more visible pieces of butter (or you can pulse in a food processor). Add the salt and egg plus yolk and combine until it comes together into a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes, then roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 3 mm (1⁄8 in) thick. Lay over a 22–25 cm (83⁄4–10 in) round pie dish and trim the edges. Prick the surface gently all over with the tines of a fork (see note).
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
To make the filling, combine the ricotta, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla and eggs, and mix until smooth. Pour the filling over the pastry-lined pie dish and smooth over. Carefully push the pears into the ricotta filling, then bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is firm, slightly golden brown and the pastry crust is golden.
Let it cool completely before serving and, if you like, just at the last moment sprinkle over some icing sugar – this will mostly sink into the surface of the ricotta and the pears, so you won’t see much of it, but it will add a hint of sticky sweetness. Store this tart in the fridge and eat within 2–3 days.
Notes
If you can’t find baby pears, you can make this with regular pears. Choose firm rather than ripe pears, which hold their shape better. This tart would work nicely with halved and pitted apricots or plums (though these would not need to be poached).
If you have some leftover pastry, roll out to make mini tart bases that you can blind bake in a muffin tin or cut out cookies that you can decorate with icing or layer with jam. It’s a versatile dough that also freezes very well – nice to have for a rainy-day baking project.
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A delectable collection of innovative chocolate chip recipes by world-renowned chefs, pastry chefs, and bakers
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