This recipe for crostata is inspired by the smell that came from an invisible bakery near my first home in Florence, on via del Fico. Crostata is one of those pastries that practically every Italian grows up with. You can find crostata in most every bar or café in Florence, usually filled with apricot or blackberry jam, to be eaten with a cappuccino at breakfast or as a mid-morning snack. However, crostata is very easy to make at home, so have a try at making your own with this pastry recipe, which is adapted from Pellegrino Artusi’s (see TF 58) nineteenth-century cookbook, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
RECIPE
Fig Jam Crostata
Ingredients
250 grams of flour
125 grams of cold butter
100 grams of icing (confectioner’s) sugar
1 small egg plus 1 small egg yolk
zest of 1 lemon
250 grams of fig jam
Method
To make the pastry, chop the cold butter into small pieces and add to the flour and sugar. I always use my hands for this next bit but you can do this in a food processor if you like: with your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until you get a crumbly mixture and there are no more visible pieces of butter. Mix in the lemon zest and beaten egg plus an extra yolk until the pastry comes together into a smooth, elastic ball. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but the longer the better; as Artusi says, if you do this the day before, even better.
After resting the dough, roll out about ¾ of the pastry to cover a pie dish. Prick holes with a fork all over the pastry case. Roll out the rest of the pastry to make lattice strips, about 2cm wide to create a lattice for the top of your crostata. Fill the pie with fig jam and place your lattice strips over the top. Bake at 180°C for about 25 minutes or until it the pastry is golden brown.
Read more from Emiko Davies’ cookbook Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence, published by Hardie Grant Books. Order your copy of Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence
