A birthday dessert was required; cherries are in season; our new, buttery, gluten-free pastry recipe needed its debut; the guest of honour is Italian; and so our Cherry and Ricotta Tart seemed a perfect choice.
It’s based on a traditional Italian tart called a Crostata di Visciole (pronounced Visholay) where cherries are poached in red wine and topped with a ricotta filling then covered with a pastry lattice.
We’ve used creative licence and finished our tart with Happy Birthday pastry letters along with a few hearts thrown in for good measure.
Not the centuries old look of a traditional Cherry and Ricotta Tart but perfect for the occasion.
Rosie
CHERRY AND RICOTTA TART
Serves 10
Pastry
300 gm Revenge Gluten-free Almond Plain Flour Mix
Pinch salt
120 gm unsalted butter, cold, cubed
55 gm caster sugar
1 large egg, beaten
Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and, with the motor running, add the cubes of cold butter. Process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and pulse a few times to combine. Add the beaten eggs and process until the pastry comes together.
Transfer to a piece of greaseproof paper or plastic wrap and pat into a disc. Refrigerate for an hour.
Have a 24cm x 3cm deep loose-bottomed flat tin at the ready.
Roll out two thirds of the pastry in between two pieces of baking paper, sprinkling with white rice flour if the pastry sticks to the paper. Line the flan tin with pastry and refrigerate a further 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Blind bake the pastry by lining the pastry case with foil, pressing gently into the edges, then fill with pastry weights (dry rice or beans are excellent for this purpose) and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and return to the oven for a further 7 minutes. Set aside until ready to fill.
Cherries in Red Wine
1 lemon
550 gm fresh cherries, pitted
250 ml red wine
100 gm caster sugar
Remove the zest from the lemon in wide strips using a vegetable peeler being mindful not to remove any pith with the zest.
Place the cherries, wine, sugar and lemon zest into a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer until the cherries are soft but not mushy. Remove the cherries with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Increase the heat to medium/high and boil the liquid until it has reduced to a thick syrupy consistency. Turn off the heat. Remove the lemon zest from the cherries and chop into fine dice. Set aside. Return the cherries to the saucepan and allow to cool in the syrup.
Ricotta Filling
500 gm fresh ricotta
1 egg
75 gm caster sugar
Diced lemon rind from the poached cherries
Beat the ricotta, egg and caster sugar until smooth. Fold in the chopped lemon rind.
To Assemble
1 egg, beaten
Pure icing sugar to dust
Whipped cream to serve
Spoon the cherries and syrup onto the base of the blind baked tart case. Spoon the ricotta mixture over and smooth the top.
Roll out the remaining third of the pastry and cut into strips to make a traditional lattice pattern, or cut into any shapes desired and place on top of the ricotta. Brush the lattice with beaten egg and bake for 35-45 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the filling has puffed up. It will drop after cooling. Allow to cool in the tin.
Serve at room temperature dusted with icing sugar with a bowl of whipped cream on the side.
TIP: If fresh cherries are not available, well drained preserved cherries or sour cherries, while not poached in red wine, will do very well.