Chocolate & ricotta tart
This is a tart for celebrations. Ricotta is a wonderful carrier of flavours, and the pastry cream is luxurious. This sublime dessert was served at my Sicilian friend’s wedding in Catania, an ancient port on the east coast.
SERVES 8-10 PREP 1 hr COOK 1 hr
FOR THE PASTRY
300g Italian ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting
2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
100g golden caster sugar
2 tsp grated zest from an unwaxed lemon
125g unsalted butter
FOR THE PASTRY CREAM
250ml whole milk
1 large piece of unwaxed lemon zest
2 large egg yolks
50g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp Italian ‘00’ flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
FOR THE RICOTTA FILLING
300g ricotta
50g golden caster sugar
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
TO DECORATE
18 whole blanched almonds
18 walnut halves icing sugar
1 Put all the pastry ingredients in a food processor with a pinch of salt and combine. Remove the dough, knead very lightly on a work surface, then wrap in baking parchment and chill for 30 mins.
2 For the pastry cream, combine the milk and zest in a medium saucepan and place over a low heat until just below boiling. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until it has dissolved. Slowly whisk one-third of the milk into the egg mixture. Add the remaining milk all at once and mix well.
3 Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return it to the heat. Stir constantly until the pastry cream has thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Continue to stir for 1 min. Remove the lemon zest, pour the pastry cream into a bowl and cover the surface with baking parchment to prevent a skin forming. Allow to cool.
4 For the ricotta flling, mix all the ingredients together well.
5 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put two-thirds of the pastry dough on a lightly floured surface, flour the rolling pin and roll out the pastry to a circle about 35cm in diameter and 5mm thick. Carefully roll the dough onto the rolling pin, then lower into a 28cm tart tin. Gently press the dough against the sides of the tin.
6 Trim off the excess dough and roll a portion of it to a thickness of 1cm and 28cm long. Place this ‘dough rope’ across the centre of the tart to divide the shell in half.
7 Spread the pastry cream over one half of the tart shell and the ricotta flling over the other half. Use the remaining dough to make more 1cm-thick ropes. Arrange over the flling in a lattice pattern. Place an almond in each square over the ricotta flling, and walnut halves over the pastry cream.
8 Bake in the centre of the oven for 40–45 mins or until the crust is golden. Cool and dust with icing sugar before serving.
PER SERVING (10) 448 kcals • fat 22g • saturates 12g • carbs 51g • sugars 24g • fbre 3g • protein 10g • salt 0.2g