Last weekend I felt inspired to bake. I had some ricotta cheese in fridge and I did not want to make the usual sweet pie. So I decided to make a savory crostata, and here is the recipe!
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 2 cups of flour (I mixed whole wheat and white flour together)
- 1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
- 2 eggs
- Salt
- 1 Tsp. baking powder
For the filling:
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup prosciutto cotto (ham), diced
- ¼ cup parmigiano reggiano
- Salt
- Black pepper
- ½ cup Italian parsley, diced
Preparation
For the pastry, place the butter in a large container and warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Remove the container from the microwave and add two eggs. Mix eggs and butter together using a fork to make it fluffy. Then, add a pinch of salt, the sifted flour and the baking powder to the mixture.
Use your hands to knead the dough into a ball shape. (Do not work the dough too much otherwise the butter will melt even more and the dough will break).
Then, wrap the dough in parchment paper and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
For the filling, combine ricotta and the eggs. Add the diced prosciutto, parmigiano, salt, black pepper, and parsley. Mix all the ingredients together.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. With a rolling pin roll the pastry into an 11-inch circle on the parchment paper.
Then, transfer the pastry and the parchment paper into a pie pan. Remove the overflow extra dough from the pastry and trim the parchment paper if needed.
Pour the ricotta filling in the dough using a fork to make the filling even. Use the extra dough to make strips to put on top of the crostata (see picture). If you have any dough left you can make small decorations to place in the center of the crostata.
Bake the crostata for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden. Allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Buon appetito!