I had a sudden need to make a crostata last night. I am pleased to say that it that worked rather well.
A crostata is an unstructured pie, usually with a sweet shortcrust pastry and a seasonal fruit filling. My main motivation in making it was to try and find a new way, in addition to the black current scones, to use my foraged berries from the weekend. I also added some ripe peaches and strawberries and raspberries that I found lurking in the fridge. You can use many types of filling which would work beautifully in a crostata, rhubarb and strawberry, plums, apples, apricots; really anything you would put in a traditional pie.
One of the things I like about this recipe is that you can really cut down on the amount of sugar you add. You only need to use a little in the pastry and only as much you want in the filling. When making a normal shortcrust pastry I use two parts flour to one part butter, I enriched this crust is by increasing the ratio to three parts flour to two parts butter and added two eggs yolks. As a result the pastry is lovely and buttery and very easy to work with. Delicious on it’s own, the crostata would be even better served with a little whipped cream or creme fraiche.
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