Thursday 2 October 2008

Crostata di Fruita (Fruit Crostata) from our Tuscany Cooking Holiday

For that taste of Summer, already long forgotten, why not treat everyone to a slice of Fruit Crostata? Easy to make and absolutely mouth watering. The following quantites will serve 12.
Simone taught me this on the Tuscany short break cooking holiday and it seemed like a dessert that everyone would enjoy, yet with a twist, the base has a shortbread like consistancy. Perfect with a (not so italian) cup of English tea!




Ingredients-
500g Crema Pasticcera
Butter and Flour
½ kg of Fruit (as you prefer and depending on the season)

Instructions -
First prepare the
Pasta Frolla Pastry base
Then while that rests in the fridge, prepare the sweet cream and let it cool down
Butter a baking tray and dust it with some flour
Preheat the oven to 200°
Roll out the pastry over a floured chopping board and work it with the rolling pin, it needs to be ½ centimetre in height
Roll the pastry around the rolling pin with your hands and put it into the pan and level uniformly
With a fork pick the top of the pastry and cover with oven paper
Fill the bottom of the pan with dried beans in order to keep the pastry from rising during the cooking time
Put in the oven for no longer than 30 minutes
When you remove the pastry from the oven it will seem soft on the top, this is the right consistency, it will become stronger as it cools
In the meanwhile wash the fruit and drain well
Cover the pastry with a layer of cream and then let your creativity take over and decorate as you see fit...
Finally, place in the fridge until just before serving, enjoy!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

oh now that is delicious! I'd love to make that one day...

anudivya said...

That looks lovely. First time here, and loving the flavors of Italy.