Crostata with Strawberries Recipe

It’s strawberry season! If you go in the city or all around Denmark you can easily buy potatoes, peas and strawberries.

Today we give you a very tasty and lovely cake. The bottom layer is made of pasta frolla (similar to shortbread), the filling is a delicious cream made from ricotta and the top is entirely covered with sweet strawberries, of course!

INGREDIENTS for 8 servings:

For the pasta frolla:

• 300 g  (3 cup cake/pastry) flour
• 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 200 g (1/2cup + 5 tbsp + 2/3tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• butter and flour to grease a tin;

for the filling:

• 450 g (1 cup + 3/4) ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 90 g (6 tbsp ) sugar
• tonka vanilla beans (or vanilla)

for the top:

• 200 g (1 cup) organic strawberries.

METHOD

• Place flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir well to mix. Add butter, cut it into little pieces, and rub mixture between the palm of your hands until it forms fine crumbs. Add egg and stir with a fork until mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. Form dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in a plastic and let it chill for 30-40 minutes in the fridge. 
• In the meantime prepare the filling mixing in a bowl sugar and eggs. Then add the ricotta and a pinch of grated tonka vanilla beans.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 28cm round shallow baking tin with a little butter and flour.
• When the dough is ready to use, on a flowered work surface, roll out it until it’s 0.5cm thick and large enough to line the prepared tin, ensuring the base and sides are completely covered. Pour in the ricotta’s cream and cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
• Cut the strawberries in layers and, when the crostata is cool, decorate the top with them.  Dust the icing sugar on the top before eating.

Tips:

with left over pasta frolla we make these beautiful and delicious biscuits!