This Cake is a Pie: Mastering Italian Crostata

The crostata I made back at home -- this one with apricot jam and fresh cherries

While we were in Italy just last month we took a cooking class from a lovely Italian woman named Sonia. If your imagination is running to a graying mamma wielding a pasta roller and a checkered apron, think again. Sonia teaches French at the Lucca high school and graduated from Amherst College. Just wanted to set the scene…correctly! I was so excited to tackle crostata, the classic Italian dolce that is part pie, part cake. Sonia called it cake, but you’ll soon see why is shares more with our American pies than any cake we’ve come to know.

The husband and I lived in Italy an unmentionable number of years ago, and this was our long-overdue return. I had also taken cooking classes back then, and had thought I’d returned home with a fool-proof recipe for Torta della Nonna, a crostata-like cake/pie made with ricotta. It never, ever worked here, either because of my poor note-taking, even poorer conversions, or most likely, because the flour here just isn’t the same as it is in Italy. I think this time I’ve managed to get a little closer to the crostata we made in Italy, but the flour still affects the final outcome. I think our flour makes a softer crust, so I’m going to keep on the lookout for imported Italian flour to see if I can really achieve the intended flavor and texture.

Italian desserts are not terribly sweet. I think that’s why I like them (I’m a savory craver, not a sweet eater). And this dessert will take away all pie fears, if you have them!

Crostata | 6 to 8 servings

Made with jam it is a jam crostata (example: crostata dei fichi, or fig jam crostata) and made with fresh fruit it’s called a torta di frutta. This one is a jam crostata, but the pastry can be pre-cooked and filled with pastry cream and fresh fruit.

The pastry for crostata, called pasta frolla, is a pie dough almost like shortbread. To keep it tender and not too “bready,” have all the ingredients refrigerator cold. I’ve even mixed the dry ingredients and stuck them in the fridge for a few minutes.

Italian baking sugar is finer than ours, so if possible, use superfine sugar, available at many grocery stores.

Scant 1/4 cup ice-cold water
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup superfine sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, or 1 stick, refrigerator cold
1 1/2 cups good-quality, naturally sweetened jam, such as apricot, raspberry, cherry, fig

Measure the water and put it in the freezer until needed. Prepare the lemon zest and set aside. Break the egg into a small bowl, beat until combined, and store in the refrigerator until needed.

Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Mix in the lemon zest.

Sonia is mixing the flour, sugar and lemon zest together but she's working quickly -- the kitchen was warm

Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Using fingertips and working quickly, pinch the butter into the flour mixture until it is crumbly and about the texture of steel-cut oats. A pastry blender works well, also.

The butter just came out of the fridge

Pinching and tossing very quickly

Mix in the egg, tossing quickly. Add the ice-cold water, tossing the dough as you go. Use just enough so that the dough will gather up but not be soggy. Punch the dough together until it forms a ball.

Divide the dough into a 1/3-sized ball and a 2/3-sized ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

This was a double recipe, so we divided the dough for two "cakes"

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter a 10-inch round pan or line with waxed paper. Place the larger dough ball in the center and work the dough out to the edges of the pan using your fingertips, pressing from the center out. Work the dough up the side of pan about 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Trim the top edge of the dough if necessary.