Sophie Hansen shares her rhubarb and ricotta crostata, perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea or dessert.
This crostata is one of my favourite recipes. It travels well, is just as good with a coffee for breakfast as a dollop of cream for afternoon tea or served warm with a scoop of ice cream for dessert.
If you’re not big on rhubarb, swap the compote for any jam you prefer – something with a little acidity is always good (apricot perhaps?)
Sophie xx
Serves 8-10
Prep time 25 mins
Cook time 30 mins
400g Carême All Butter Shortcrust Pastry or 400g Sour Cream Shortcrust Pastry, defrosted
Rhubarb
1 bunch rhubarb, stalks trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces (or you can substitute with your favourite jam, berries or other seasonal fruit)
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar (or to taste)
Zest and juice of two oranges
Ricotta filling
1 cup (230 g) fresh, soft ricotta
1/4 cup (30 g) icing (confectioners’) sugar
1 vanilla bean
3 eggs
Egg wash
1 egg
2 tbsp cream
Preheat oven to 180C fan-forced (200°C conventional).
For the rhubarb, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb has collapsed into a chunky compote. Test for sweetness. Add a little more sugar if you think it needs it!
Unroll the pastry and drape over a 23cm fluted, loose-bottomed tart tin. Gently push the pastry into the corners of the tin. Trim overhanging edges. Reserve extra pastry for the ‘lattice’ lid and keep in the fridge.
Line the pastry with baking paper and then fill with baking weights (ensuring they go all the way up to the top) to support the sides during this first bake.
Pop in the oven for 10 minutes. Gently remove the weights and paper and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the pastry looks and feels dry and is very very pale gold in colour.
Meanwhile, make the ricotta filling by mixing all ingredients in a bowl and whisking until smooth. Make the egg wash by whisking together the egg and cream.
Cut the reserved pastry into about 10 strips (re-rolling as needed).
Spoon the ricotta filling into the tart shell, swirl the rhubarb on top, then arrange five of the pastry strips along the top. Spin the tart around and criss-cross the remaining five strips in a lattice pattern on the other side, weaving the strips in and out of each other (follow @locallovely on Instagram to view a how-to video).
Trim any excess, brush the pastry strips with your egg wash, sprinkle with the caster sugar and place in the oven to cook for 35 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.
Serve warm or chilled (if the latter, you’ll find it slices much more cleanly).
Some kitchen shortcuts are really worth taking. Good all-butter pastry is one of them. But the only brand that does it properly in Australia is Carême Pastry.
When I make pastry at home, I only use butter. So does Carême. All their pastries are preservative free and made with proper butter, not vegetable or palm oils which you see in lots of pastries in the frozen section of the supermarkets.
If this sounds like an ad, well, it is! I approached Carême to see if they’d come on as an advertising partner with Galah because I love their products so much. They are a family-run business based in the Barossa Valley – 100 per cent Australian made and owned – making high-quality, delicious pastry sheets that taste as if I had made them myself. I want to sing their praises.
If you’re wondering where you can find Carême pastries, just head to their website. Click on “home cook” then “where to buy”. You enter your postcode and it tells you the closest stockists.
Thank you to Carême for being a partner with Galah.
