Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole alla Romana-Ebraica Classica

Ingredients

• For the pasta frolla
• 400 g Italian 00 flour
• 200 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 100 g icing sugar
• 2 eggs
• For the ricotta filling
• 500 g ricotta di pecora, freshly made; strained through cheesecloth for 24 hours
• 1 lemon, zest only, finely grated
• For the filling and assembly
• 300 g visciole jam, Prunus cerasus — Roman sour wild cherry jam, not standard sweet cherry jam
• To finish
• 1 tsp icing sugar, for dusting at service only

Method

1. 1
   Begin 24 hours before baking. Line a colander with cheesecloth, turn the ricotta di pecora into it, fold the cloth over the top and set over a bowl in the refrigerator. The ricotta must lose all free moisture before it enters the tart; a palm pressed lightly against the cloth should feel resistance, not seep.
2. 2
   Make the pasta frolla. Combine the 00 flour and icing sugar in a bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and work them into the flour with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, uneven crumbs — some pea-sized pieces of butter should remain visible. Add the eggs and bring the dough together with minimal pressure until it just coheres. Flatten into a disc, wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The dough must feel firm and slightly resistant when pressed.
3. 3
   Preheat the oven to 175 °C. Divide the chilled dough: two-thirds for the base, one-third reserved in the refrigerator for the lattice. Roll the larger portion on a lightly floured surface to approximately 4 mm thickness and line a 24 cm tart tin. Trim the edges. Line the pastry with paper, fill with baking weights, and blind-bake for 10 minutes. The surface should appear set and dry, no longer raw-looking and matte.
4. 4
   Remove the weights and paper and allow the blind-baked base to cool completely in the tin. The base must be cool to the touch at the centre before filling; residual heat will begin to melt the ricotta and migrate moisture into the pastry.
5. 5
   Prepare the ricotta filling. Turn the strained ricotta di pecora into a bowl and fold in the finely grated lemon zest. The mixture should hold its shape when lifted with a spoon — dense, not pourable. Spread the ricotta evenly across the cooled pastry base in a smooth, level layer.
6. 6
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Spread the visciole jam in an even layer directly over the ricotta — not beneath it, not over the lattice. The jam must sit above the ricotta and below the lattice so that every slice, when cut, presents pastry base, ricotta, and jam in unbroken sequence. Use the back of a spoon and work gently to avoid disturbing the ricotta beneath. The jam layer should be fully opaque and continuous, with no ricotta visible through it.
7. 7
   Retrieve the reserved dough from the refrigerator. Roll it cold to 4 mm thickness and cut into strips approximately 1.5 cm wide. Lay the strips across the tart in a lattice pattern, pressing the ends firmly against the tart rim. Cold strips hold their shape; do not allow them to warm before applying. The lattice should be taut and even.
8. 8
   Bake at 175 °C for 30–35 minutes. The tart is ready when the lattice is uniformly golden and the ricotta, visible between the strips, is set at the edges but retains a faint, slow trembling at the very centre when the tin is gently moved. Do not bake beyond this point; an over-baked ricotta will be grainy and dry.
9. 9
   Remove from the oven and rest at room temperature for a full 2 hours before unmoulding or cutting. The pastry resets and the ricotta firms to the correct slicing consistency during this period. The tart should feel stable and no longer warm when a hand is held close to the surface.
10. 10
    Dust with icing sugar immediately before serving — not before, as the sugar will absorb moisture and dull on a rested tart. Each portion should show the four layers in cross-section: lattice, jam, ricotta, base.