La Torta Antica Ericina
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 9 tablespoons sweet butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, plus additional as needed
- 4 tablespoons moscato or other sweet wine, chilled
- 1 plump vanilla bean
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2/3 cup mascarpone
- 1 1/2 pounds whole-milk ricotta (best if purchased in bulk from an Italian grocery or a specialty cheese store)
- 1 cup confectioners sugar, plus additional as needed
- 2 egg whites, beaten to a froth
- Pulse the flour, salt, confectioners sugar, and cinnamon two or three times in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
- Add the 9 tablespoons very well chilled butter and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- With the machine running, pour the cold wine in through the feed tube all at once and process for 4 to 5 seconds, only until the contents just begin to form a dough.
- Turn the mixture out onto a large sheet of plastic wrap, gathering up the errant bits and gently pressing it all into a dough.
- Enclose the dough in the plastic, cover the plastic with a clean kitchen towel and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the rested dough between two sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch.
- Remove one sheet of wrap and invert the pastry into a buttered 10-inch loose-bottomed tart pan, fitting and trimming the pastry.
- Cover the pastry with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes or the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Split the vanilla bean with a small, sharp knife and scrape out the seeds into a large saucepan.
- Add the vanilla pod and the cream and, over a medium flame, bring the components to a simmer, permitting the cream to reduce and thicken to 1 cup.
- Add the mascarpone and heat until the mascarpone is melted and blended with the reduced cream.
- Cover the pot and permit the vanilla seeds and pod to infuse the cream.
- Meanwhile, in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, process the ricotta with 1 cup confectioners sugar until the cheese is smooth and thick.
- Add the egg whites and process another 20 seconds to incorporate them well.
- Turn the ricotta mixture out into a medium bowl.
- When the cream/vanilla mixture has cooled, remove the vanilla pod and blend the perfumed cream very well into the ricotta.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the tart shell and bake the shell for 5 minutes, lowering the heat to 400 degrees and baking it for 8 minutes more or until it has begun to firm and is lightly golden.
- Remove the partially baked pastry from the oven to cool for 10 minutes.
- Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Spread the ricotta mixture over the tart, smoothing it a bit, and bake the tart for 20 minutes or until the ricotta is firm and a very pale golden crust has begun to form on its surface.
- Do not overbake the tart.
- Remove it from the oven, setting it on a rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing the pans sides and permitting the tart to cool thoroughly.
- Dust the tart with confectioners sugar.
flour, salt, confectioners sugar, ground cinnamon, sweet butter, moscato, vanilla bean, heavy cream, mascarpone, wholemilk, confectioners sugar, egg whites
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/la-torta-antica-ericina-391221 (may not work)