table talk / By Simona Carini

A Crostata for Aunt Lucia

A golden Italian jam tart, revived from memory and a great cookbook

(Aug. 28, 2008)  I have always loved crostata alla crema (tart with pastry cream). My mother, however, did not bake desserts of any kind. My aunt Lucia baked tarts with her homemade jam and made excellent pastry cream, but in her kitchen never the twain would meet. I feasted on her pastry cream and nibbled at her jam tart. My father and all my cousins loved my aunt’s jam tart, so I was never able to convince her to diversify her recipe.

My longing for tart with pastry cream now is easily satisfiable, since I have full control of a kitchen and the passion for making experiments in it, but I recently felt a sudden nostalgia for my aunt’s jam tart. Looking back at those days, I realize how special were things I took for granted: her homemade jam, her oversize tart pan, the love she put into her baking. I can no longer call my aunt to let her know that I am baking crostata, but that does not detract from the pleasure of doing something that reminds me of her, especially this time of the year.

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During my childhood and adolescence, my family spent my father’s summer vacation, three weeks in August, in his native village of Poggio Catino (north of Rome), in the house where he grew up and where my aunt lived year-round. I have a few nice memories of those long, hot weeks, but mostly the memories are of boredom. My aunt did her best to alleviate my ennui, cooking, sewing and knitting things for me. I was not overly fond of her jam tart: I would have preferred a thicker layer of something less sweet. On the other hand, I loved her crostatine,cookie-size little tarts made with leftover pastry dough, topped with a dab of jam.

My mother also made jam. One year, I asked her to make a batch with only one part of sugar to 10 parts of fruit. I loved the result, because I could taste the fruit (peaches, in that case). This year, after I started thinking of honoring my aunt by baking a jam tart, I bought plums and honey at the farmers’ market and made what I should call fruit spread, using the same proportions (plus some lemon juice).

The expectation may be that I will share my aunt’s recipe for past frolla, the sweet shortcrust pastry that provides the base of a crostata, but unfortunately I never asked her for it. So, instead, let me introduce you to the illustrious Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911), author of the classic La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene, first published in 1891 and available now in an English translation, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Section 589 contains three recipes for shortcrust pastry dough. For crostata, Artusi recommends recipe C, made with butter and strutto, rendered lard used for cooking. I prefer a variation of recipe B, which employs only butter.

Put half a cup minus one tablespoon of white granulated sugar in the food processor and let it run a bit, then add one cup of unbleached white flour and 3/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour, and pulse to mix. Add a stick (half a cup) of very cold unsalted butter cut into pieces, plus the grated zest of half a lemon, and a pinch of salt, and pulse a few times, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. Then empty the food processor’s bowl on your kneading surface. (The food processor method was added in some update of the 1891 edition.)

In a small bowl, lightly beat a whole extra-large egg plus a yolk. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it. Do not scrape the bowl clean — set it aside, covered, in the fridge. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, until the consistency is such that you can use your fingers without having to run after rivulets of egg. Work the dough as little as possible. Shape it into a thick disk, wrap it in plastic and place it in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour, more if possible. “If it is convenient, you can make the dough the day before,” says Artusi, because “the more time it sits, the more tender it will be when baked.”

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