Peach & Ricotta Crostata

a lazy version

“We’re lucky that we got peaches at all. A lot of other stores aren’t even getting them in.” I stopped to get a few things at the store the other day and decided a few of the Pennsylvania peaches were ready to come home with me. They offered good color, texture and a firmness that promised a ripe, juicy experience within the next couple days. The woman checking me out was explaining my good fortune. 

I asked her if she thought it was because of all the rain. “All the rain” has been a common explanation for a lot of things that have happened this summer. Failed gardens, successful gardens, cancellation of outdoor projects, indoor vacations…you could probably add a few more to the list if you live up here. She said no, it was because of the killer frost that we had back in May. That one nasty night where the temperature dropped and held at 28⁰F for a number of hours. Did Pennsylvania get that same killer frost at its far southern latitude? I didn’t ask.

My knowledgeable checkout lady went on to explain that it was likely going to affect the apple crop too. Uh oh. That was a valid point. Apple blossoms got knocked out by that cold night. I started thinking about my annual applesauce making adventure, and whether or not it would happen this year. But I was getting ahead of myself.  I’ll worry about that later. Right now, I had six beautiful peaches that wanted my attention.

In addition, I also had a string of nice weather days. Occasionally we’ve gotten one nice weather day between massive rain storms, but now we were on our third. And by nice weather days, I mean the sun was shining, the mornings were cool and there was a light breeze throughout the day that kept the mosquitoes at bay. The temperature felt like the perfect 71 degree summer day on your skin as the sun and wind kept the air circulating. On days like this, you just wanted to be outside. 

There are many days in the summer when you don’t want to cook or bake because it’s too hot. This was an unusual case where I didn’t want to bake because it was too nice outside. However, I had these peaches…

I needed something that was easy, quick and also let the peaches shine as the stars on stage they were meant to be. I decided on a crostata, which is an Italian baked tart or pie. The french galette is basically the same thing and, as I understand it, the terms are used interchangeably. 

There are a lot of options when it comes to a crostata. They can be fruit filled and sweet. Think mixed berry or apple. They can be savory, such as with tomato or zucchini. But they are often a way to use the produce that is in season and that’s what was happening here.

As I perused the internet for the recipe of my choice, I discovered multiple peach crostata options that kept getting better and better. First there was just a straight peach one. Then I found one for peach and blueberry. Next I decided on the recipe that included peach, blueberry and ricotta. Finally I settled on a peach and ricotta crostata drizzled with a maple syrup and balsamic vinegar reduction. This is one of those things that sounded like a good idea at the time.

Previously I had reduced a pie crust recipe to a 6” crust and decided to use that as my crostata crust. I mixed that together and put it in the fridge and then went to work on the reduction. I was using the recipe from Stewart Maple as a guide. While it’s true that baking is a science and specific quantities are important (you have a scale, right?) there was some flexibility in the filling and I wanted to move things along so I could get onto nice weather things. So I did not measure exactly, and just sort of winged it. I based my quantities on the size of my crust, which was two-thirds of the original recipe. So I decided filling reductions would also be approximately two-thirds of the original recipe.

It was not the amount of vinegar that I used, or the healthy pour of maple syrup that I added to it. It was the 1 cup pot I used to reduce it in. It was too small, I was multitasking while it cooked and it boiled over. More than once. 

In fact, I moved it to a different burner to continue cooking while I cleaned the first mess and it boiled over a second time coating a second burner in a sweet sticky mess that quickly gelled and clogged the holes of my propane burning stove. After a while I gave up on the reduction, put the whole project behind me, and went outside. 

The next day, I was ready to try again. I rolled out the dough, sliced the peaches, mixed maple syrup into the ricotta, then assembled and baked the crostata. Meanwhile I peeked into the pot with the wretched reduction and discovered that as it had cooled, it thickened to the perfect consistency. AND it tasted amazing. Tangy and sweet, as it should. Wow! All is not lost.

I drizzled my reduction on the crostata, thinking that it was going to be too sweet. But again, I was surprised. The peaches were flavorful and still firm, the ricotta-maple filling was creamy and the vinegar in the reduction had just the right amount of influence to balance all of the flavors.

So if you have a couple peaches that need somewhere to go, I invite you to try this crostata.I mentioned this is a lazy version. I didn’t even use my scale. So bear in mind that I am sharing with you a recipe guide for a 6” peach and ricotta crostata. Here is how I made it happen. 

ingredients

crust

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold butter

2 tablespoons cold water

filling

~⅔ cup ricotta

Maple syrup to taste

1 ½ peaches, sliced thin-ish

1 egg, whisked (optional)

reduction 

½ cup balsamic vinegar

a happy, healthy pour of maple syrup (3 tablespoons-ish)

To make the crust…

• Mix together flour, sugar and salt.

• Cut butter into small pieces and mix into the flour with your fingers, squishing and squeezing until you have small bits and some larger pea sized pieces

• Add water and mix until dough comes together

• Dump onto counter and knead or fold a few times until dough holds together

• Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes or until ready to make crostata

Meanwhile work on the reduction…

• Mix vinegar and maple syrup in a pot and heat on low-ish temperature until quantity is reduced by half. It will thicken as it cools.

When you’re ready to make the crostata, mix the filling.

• Mix together your ricotta and maple syrup in a bowl

• Preheat the oven to 350^oF

• Roll out your refrigerated crust into a rectangle on some parchment paper. It should be a relatively even thickness.  I rolled mine out to take up most of my quarter sheet pan.

• Spread the ricotta mixture across the crust leaving at least a 1” space on all four sides

• Evenly layer your peach slices across the ricotta

• Fold up the edges so they lay atop part of the peach layers. The amount that covers the peaches will depend on how much space you left from each edge. 

• Brush the crust edge with the whisked egg if you’re using it (I did not, in this case. Lazy version!)

• Bake for approximately 30 minutes

• Drizzle with reduction just before serving

I know that it looks like a lot of work, given that there are 3 different parts. But I followed the lazy version, got a fantastic tasting, rustic peach dessert, AND got to tend to my plants, clean up the woodshed, and also sit in the sun with a cool breeze, no mosquitoes and think about the future of my applesauce.