Sunbeam, Summer and a Crostata for my husband

I received this meme award from Solema the other day, and just like her I'd like to pass it to all my readers. If you wish to publish it on your blog, be my guest and grab it. All you have to do is publish a photo of anything that means Summer to you (food, nature, animals, etc.). Free your creativity. Here's what I chose: Pomgranate flowers and a rose in my garden (sorry, my condo garden) and a Sunny crostata.






It had been a long time since I made a crostata last time, with all the new and old recipes to try, I kind of pushed aside what Italian nutritionists call "the healtiest dessert" and usually add "if you need a dessert at the end of meal or as a snack". Well, to be honest, I never had one until I moved to Italy, and for some time indeed it seemed to me Italians could make only a Crostata with jam or Millefoglie with cream. Nothing wrong with either of them, on the contrary, but I just couldn't take it any more. Every dinner (wedding, graduation, birthday, whatever) at someone's home or in a restaurant, always the same.
But after a long break... my husband's request seemed more than right. To the extent that I made it twice in two days, because the first one was finished in less then 24 h. Did I mention my father is staying with us this month? He's kind of food-left-overs-cleaner. Nothing survives here for more than 24 hours when he's around.
I made it twice with a slightly different recipe for the crust, and between the two I liked better the first one (which is actually my recipe for Orange flavoured cookies) than the second one (which was a recipe for crostata crust), but I will do some research and try to find something even better.
The first time I used my homemade Strawberry, apple and orange jam and some store bought orange marmelade. Since my strawberry jam was almost over, for the second one (the picture above) I used the previous two, plus apricot, raspberry and God-knows-what's-in-it home made jam (my aunt's creation without a label) - for the total of 5 different jams on a single crostata.
And, of course, I could not avoid the Nutella filled crostata either, it would have been a sin. NO COMMENT.

SUNNY CROSTATA

Here are the two recipes I used this time:
I: 300 g flour, 200 g butter, 100 g powdered sugar, 2 egg yolks, grated lemon rind.

II: 300 g flour, 150 g butter, 100 g powdered sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 bag baking powder.

The procedure is however the same.
Sift the flour and sugar on the kneading board (mix baking powder with flour if you are adding it). Add finely grated lemon rind (preferably organic lemon, and however washed well and dried).

Add cold butter cut into small pieces. You can use pastry blender for the next step, but I love doing it with my hands. Rub butter and dry ingredients together to obtain coarse crumbs.

Add the egg or only egg yolks, and quickly bring everything together. Do not knead or anything, you only need to make it smooth. Form a ball, cover with a piece of plastic wrap, and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes (longer than that it will become too stiff).


Roll out the crust (leave a small part of it aside) as thin/thick as you like, mine was 3-4 mm thick, and cover the bottom and sides of a tart pan or a spring form, which makes it much easier to remove once it's baked). No need to greese or flour it.

You can proceede in two ways. One, fill the tart with jam or nutella, and then decorate with strips of crust (like I did with a little nutella crostata, or, two,
create divisions first (see the picture) and then fill with different types of jam, especially nice if you're using different colours.


Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C until the crust is golden.

If you were wondering whether it broke while I was taking it out - IT DID - so the second time I used the spring form.

CROSTATA CON I RAGGI DI SOLE

Ringrazio Solema per il premio meme Un raggio di sole. Se vi piace portatelo con voi, pubblicate sul vostro blog insieme ad una foto che per voi rapresenta l'estate:

..."La creatività-regola, è quella di postare il logo del premio, corredato da una foto che rappresenti l’estate, il cui titolo sarà: "Raggio di sole"
Raffigurare attraverso un alimento, una situazione, un oggetto, un elemento naturale.
Qualsiasi cosa, simboleggi la bella stagione"...

Ho usato due ricette diverse per questa crostata, e nonostante erano buone, continuerò a cercare una ricetta migliore. Suggerimenti sono benvenuti.
I: 300 g farina, 100 g zucchero a velo, 200 g burro, 2 tuorli, scorza grattugiata di un limone
II: 300 g farina, 100 g zucchero a velo, 150 g burro, 1 uovo, 1/2 bustina di lievito
Procedimento: settaciate la farina (piu il lievito, in caso II) e lo zucchero a velo, aggiungete la scorza grattugiata e poi il burro freddo tagliato a pezzetti. Strofinate delicatamente con le mani il burro con degli ingredienti secchi fino a ottenere delle briciole. Aggiungete l'uovo e impastate velocemente. Lasciate riposare in frigorifero per 30 minuti.
Stendete la frolla e foderate uno stampo per crostate. Se volete fare una crostata bicolore (o multicolore) come la mia, create prima delle divisioni con i "salsicciotti" di frolla, riempitela con la vostra marmelata preferita (e nessuno vi vieta di usare la Nutella), infornate a 180°C e... Voila!

SUNČANA PITA S PEKMEZOM

Koristila sam dva različita recepta za ovu pitu, a napunila sam je različitim vrstama pekmeza (od jagoda, marelica, malina, naranče, i miješanim domaćim pekmezom moje strine) kao i, neizbježno, Nutellom.
I: 300 g brašna, 100 g mljevenog šećera, 200 g maslaca, 2 žumanjka, noribana korica 1 limuna
II: 300 g brašna, 100 g mljevenog šećera, 150 g maslaca, 1 jaje, 1/2 praška za pecivo

Oba su recepta bila dobra, ali ja nastavljam tražiti bolji.
Priprema: prosijte brašno (+ prašak za pecivo u II) i šećer u prahu, dodajte limunovu koricu i hladan maslac narezan na ploškice. Trljajte maslac i suhe sastojke da dobijete mrvice. Dodajte jaje ili žumanjke pa brzo zamijesite tijesto, oblikujte kuglu, omotajte plastičnom folijom i ostavite u hladnjaku 30 minuta.
Razvaljajte tanko tijesto (3-5 mm) pa prekrijte dno i stranice kalupa (do 1 - 1,5 cm). Od ostatka tijesta oblikujte pregrade pa napunite pekmezom po želji ili Nutellom. Pecite na 180°C dok pita ne poprimi zlatnosmeđu boju.