Summer Fruit Crostada
- Prep Time: 25 minutes + a minimum of 2 hours to chill dough
- Cooking Time: 1 hour
- Serves: 6
Summer is the perfect time to make this free-form tart. It’s a casual but sumptuous dessert, bursting with the colors and flavors of summer fruits. The dough is easily made in a food processor, the dish can be made without a tart pan, and the simplicity of this dessert allows the fruit to shine.
I prefer to make this tart with ripe summer stone fruit, such as peaches, nectarines and plums. They’re full of vitamin C and dietary fiber, and are in abundance at every farmer’s market, supermarket and corner fruit stand, with their panorama of colorful skins just beckoning for you to reach out and grab them. Enjoy the delights of summer fruit while they last, because as soon as fall is upon us, that sweet, sticky juice running down your chin will be nothing but a memory!
- Part of Meal: Dessert
- Special Diet: Vegetarian
- Kosher Hostess Tip:
If you want to purchase stone fruit that is ripe and ready to eat, look for fruits that yield to gentle pressure and that are slightly soft at the tip. Avoid fruit that is excessively hard because it was probably picked immaturely and may not even develop tasty flesh. Once stone fruit is ripe, it can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
- Pastry:
- 2-1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon(s) kosher salt
- 3 tablespoon(s) sugar, plus one tablespoon for sprinkling
- 16 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter or buttery sticks, cut into small cubes and chilled
- 1/2 cup(s) ice water
- 1 egg white, whisked lightly with a fork
- Fruit Filling:
- 8 peaches, plums or nectarines (or any combination of these fruits)
- 1/2 cup(s) sugar
- 2 tablespoon(s) butter or buttery sticks
- zest of 1/2 an orange or lemon
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar and chilled butter or buttery sticks. (Please note, if you don't have a food processor, use a different pastry recipe that you can mix by hand.)
- Pulse 10—12 times to mix the ingredients. Slowly add the cold water and pulse another 10—12 times.
- Pour the contents into a zip-top bag. It will be crumbly, just press it together lightly in the bag and place it in the refrigerator for 2—24 hours. You can place it in the freezer for 1 hour if you’re in a hurry.
- Once it’s chilled, place the dough in between two pieces of wax paper and roll it out to a 14 inch diameter disc. Remove the top sheet of wax paper, and then, using the bottom sheet, lift the dough, flip it onto a cookie sheet and peel then off the wax paper. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
- Crimp the edge of the pastry by gently folding 3/4 inch in from the edge. Brush the edge with the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Prick the base of the tart with a fork and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425º.
- Take the pastry out of the fridge and bake for 20—25 minutes. You want the shell to be fully cooked but not brown. Remove it from the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 350º.
- In the meantime, prepare the fruit filling by combining the sliced fruit, sugar and zest in a large bowl and stirring well. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan and pour the fruit on top. Cook the fruit for 10 minutes.
- Pour the fruit into the tart shell and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Serve the tart warm or at room temperature.