Crostata jam tart

In Italy, a crostata is a pastry tart filled with jam, custard or ricotta and is found in bakeries all over the country and also frequently prepared at home. The home version is often better than the store bought one which might be made with margarine and, more often than not, with very sweet jellies instead of proper jam. The secret of a great crostata is a high proportion of butter in the dough and homemade or a store bought jam with a high proportion of fruit.

The Umbrians love a crostata. Any garden party buffet will display at least 4 or 5 of these tarts and the competition among the local ladies is ruthless. Opinions are vigorously split among those who prefer more crust and just a dab of jam, those who want hardly any crust and lots of jam, and everything in between.  My recipe has a thin, rich and crunchy base topped by a thin layer of homemade jam. With this version I have won many followers one of them just said that if the New Year will be as good as my crostata, it will be a very good year. I can’t think of a better compliment!

Recipe
For the pastry dough:

• 125 gr cold unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 250 gr all purpose or stone ground flour nr. 1
• 125 gr (1/2 cup) Demerara (light brown) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 whole large egg
• zest of 1/2 orange or lemon, finely grated

For the Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups fruit preserves

To make the pastry dough, dice the butter into 6-8 cubes and place in the bowl of a food processor together with the flour, sugar, zest and  salt. Using the blade at high speed, blend until most of the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 2 minutes. Stir in the egg and blend until the mixture forms a dough, one more minute. It is important not to overheat the butter, so do not overwork the dough.

Line a a 10 inch ( 25 cm) tart pan with parchment paper. Sponge your worktop to make it slightly damp and arrange over it a large square of clingfilm. Roll 4/5th of the dough over the clingfilm into a 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thin disk. The disk should be large enough to  to make a case with shallow sides. Invert the disk into the tart pan and peel off the clingfilm.  Using a silicon spatula, spread a 1 cm (1/2 inch) layer of preserves over the pastry case.

With lightly floured hands roll the rest (1/5th) of the dough into several 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick cylinders. Carefully arrange the cylinders over the tart in an open lattice pattern. It is not necessary to weave the lattice. You can also roll the leftover dough into a thin square using a rolling pin and cut decorative strips with a ravioli cutter as in the photo above.

Transfer the pie in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 an hour and up to half a day. Up to this point the crostata can be frozen. Before using, defrost overnight in the refrigerator and bake.

Preheat oven to 180° C/ 350° F. Bake the crostata in middle of the oven 45 minutes, or until the lattice is golden. Cool the crostata in the pan on a rack.
Serves 8

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