Our Recipes: Pesca Mirtillo Crostata

This past Labor Day weekend, we had some close friends over for a barbecue. Since the main course might be fairly filling, we wanted to make a light, summery dessert. Lisa and I partnered up on this one. She came up with a fabulous dough for the crust and I put it all together... our Pesca Mirtillo Crostata, or Peach Blueberry Tart.

This is actually a fairly easy dessert to make that will always impress company. It looks so elegant event though it is the ultimate in quick, easy recipes.

Ingredients
for the crust:
1 - 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (we use King Arthur's)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
9 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 1/4" slices
4 tablespoons ice water, plus one or two additional tablespoons, if needed

for the filling:
4 large white peaches (if in season), sliced into 1/2" wedges (leave skin on)
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup cinnamon and sugar
2 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
dash of nutmeg
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam, heated and melted (for brushing the bottom of the crust)

To finish off the crust
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar (for sprinkling on the crust)

Making the crust

• Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, then pulse to mix.
  
• Making sure your pieces of butter are cold, add them to the mix, then pulse until you get a course texture with some pebbly size pieces remaining. Do not over process. You want to see bits of butter throughout.
• Splash the 4 tablespoons water on top of the mix and pulse again until the dough comes together into a fairly smooth ball. If the mix is dry, add a bit more water (1/2 tablespoon at a time) until you get a smooth ball formed. 
• Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and flatten by gently banging with a straight sided pastry rolling pin, turning a quarter turn, then banging a bit more (evenly across the surface) until you get a disk of dough about 3/4 of an inch thick.
• Wrap the disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour (or longer... you can keep it in there longer if you are making the dough ahead of time).

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Making the filling

• In a medium mixing bowl, place the 1/4 cup cinnamon and sugar blend, the 2 tablespoons flour, and the dash of nutmeg and mix to combine.
  
• Clean, dry and then slice the peaches into wedge segments. You can leave the skin on. Place the peach segments and the blueberries in the bowl and toss to coat with the cinnamon sugar/flour mixture.
  

Assembling the Crostata

• When ready to roll out the crust, remove from the refrigerator and let it rest on your work surface for 15 minutes.
  
• Meanwhile, heat the raspberry jam until it melts.
• Remove plastic wrap, then place the disk between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out the dough, turning a quarter turn as it grows in size. Roll it out to a thickness of slightly less than 1/4 " (the thickness of two quarter dollars or two Euros is about right) and about 10" in diameter. (Don't worry of the circle of dough isn't perfect. That is the look and charm of a crostata... the shape should be rustic and a bit uneven.)
• Place your dough disk onto a heavy baking sheet... a professional, silver half-sheet pan is perfect for this. (Do not use an air-insulated cookie sheet or the crust might not brown on the bottom.) If you use a dark pan, the baking time might be 5-10 minutes less.
• Remove the top parchment paper and then using a pastry brush, coat the top of the dough disk with jam, leaving the outer 2" or so un-coated.
• Starting in the center, lay out your peach slices, overlapping as you go. You can do concentric circles or a spiral--your choice. You can even place them randomly for a truly rustic look. The circle of peaches should stop about 2" from the edges of your disk of dough.
• Place the blueberries randomly throughout. Or, you could use more blueberries to make alternating rings of peaches, then blueberries, and so on. For me, I like the randomness. After all, this is an Italian crostata, not a meticulous French gallette.
• Next, fold over the crust's edges, one 3" section at a time... fold over onto the top of the outermost peaches. You don't have to pinch... just fold over gently.
  

• Now, brush on the beaten egg wash onto the crust, then sprinkle generously with the turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw is one brand).
  
• Bake for 40-50 minutes in a 400F oven on the center rack until the crust looks golden brown and crispy.
• Remove from oven when done and place on a cooling rack before serving. This tart keeps nicely in the refrigerator in case you're making it ahead. you can lightly cover with foil or plastic wrap for a day or two.
  

I served the crostata with a scoop of home made French vanilla ice cream... Lisa had hers with some Limoncello.

Let us know how yours turned out!
Boun appetito!


--Jerry Finzi