Tuscan Recipes - No.18 Crostata di Marmellata

Serves: 6-8 slices

INGREDIENTS

• 200g flour
• 100g sugar
• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg and 1 yolk
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups of fruit jam, e.g. blackberry, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, fig, fruits of the forest, or plum.

1.    Start by preparing the pasta frolla. Mix the flour and sugar and pinch of salt, then in the centre add the butter cut into little pieces, the egg and yolk. Quickly blend, handling everything as little as possible to keep the butter from melting too much (a pastry blender makes this part easier). Mix until you have a smooth ball. Let it rest, covered, for at least an hour.

2.   Prepare the jam. By baking it the flavour gets concentrated so if you start with a very sweet jam, you should warm it in a saucepan and add a little bit of lemon juice to make it less sweet. If it is thick, also warm it and add a little water to help dilute it. It should be easy to spread but not too watery and not too sweet.

3.   Once the dough has rested, butter a flat-bottomed 12” round pan and preheat your oven to 175 C. Roll the dough out to about between ¼ and ½” (about 1cm) thick on a lightly floured surface. Do this quickly, without working the dough too much otherwise it becomes crumbly after baking.

4.   Set the dough over your pan and work in the corners, cut the extra pieces around the edge off, and spread the jam on the dough. With the extra pieces of dough, reroll and cut into half an inch strips and lay them over the jam in a cross-hatch pattern. Save enough of the dough to add a thin ring around the border to create a rim, fluting with your hand a little, or with the back of a fork.

5.   Bake the crostata for about 20 minutes, or until the dough begins to brown, at the most 30-40 minutes. Do not let it overbake or the pasta frolla will become hard and the jam will become too sticky.

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