Torta di ricotta e visciole / ricotta cheese and sour cherries tart

May 7, 2018

For the pastry:

  • 400g of flour type ‘00’
  • 200g of sugar
  • 200g of cold butter, cubes
  • 4 egg yolks
  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp of cold water

For the filling:

  • 400g of ricotta cheese (I like to mix cow and sheep ricotta in equal proportions)
  • 120g of sugar
  • 1 egg (yolk and egg white separated) ** if you don’t need the egg whites that were left from making the pastry, you can add an extra one here
  • 2 tbsp of sambuca
  • 1 jar of sour cherries jam (400g), or a jar of regular cherries jam in case you can’t find the one made of sour cherries

*1 egg to brush the pastry

To make the pastry, sift the flour onto a working space, add sugar, lemon zest and the butter. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture has a sandy consistency. Stir in the egg yolks and bring the dough together. You can add 1 tablespoon of water or even a bit more if needed, but one should be enough. Alternatively, you could do all that in a food processor.
Shape the dough into a bowl, wrap it in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30min.

To make the filling, mix well the ricotta cheese with the egg yolk, sambuca and sugar.
Start whisking the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Once the egg whites are nice and firm, gently fold them into the ricotta paste.

Preheat the oven to 160C (non – fan 180C).

Now prepare a round (23 cm of diameter preferably with a loose bottom) tart tin.
Cut off about two-thirds of the pastry and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Gently lift it and place it into the tin, trim off the excess pastry leaving a generous margin.

Now spread evenly the sour cherries jam (room temperature) and top the tart with the ricotta filling and even out the surface.
Roll out the remaining pastry into the ring that fits the tart (23 cm diameter in this case) and place it on top of the tart. Now fold the excess of the pastry from the sides of the tart and “close” the tart.

I like to brush the top with a beaten egg, I love the golden colour of the baked tart.

Bake for 1hr. In case the top of the tart is getting too dark, cover it with a piece of aluminium foil.