With the fresh ricotta I made the other day I decided to make a Rhubarb, Strawberry and Ricotta Tart.
The inspiration for this tart came, once again, from Donna Hay’s beautiful Seasons: The Best of Donna Hay Magazine Cookbook. Easily my favourite cookbook, I spotted a recipe for a strawberry and ricotta tart and decided to switch things up a bit by adding stewed rhubarb to the ricotta filling. It worked beautifully, and my fiance and the boys loved it.
The great thing about this Rhubarb, Strawberry and Ricotta tart is that you can customise the filling to suit your tastes. If you aren’t a fan of rhubarb or don’t have any on hand, why not try a double dose of strawberries and add strawberries to the filling as well topping the tart with fresh strawberries. That’s the great thing about cooking, you can have fun and play with your own flavour combinations.
Do you enjoy coming up with your own flavour combinations? What are your favourite summer flavours to cook with?
Rhubarb, Strawberry and Ricotta Tart
Ingredients
TART DOUGH:
- 145 g of unsalted butter at room temperature
- 75 g of icing sugar sifted
- 1/4 cup of ground almonds
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 245 g of plain flour all-purpose
FILLING:
- 150 g of rhubarb roughly chopped
- 50 g of brown sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- 200 g of ricotta
- 55 g of caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 300 g of strawberries sliced
- icing sugar
Instructions
- To make the tart dough, place the butter in a large food processor bowl fitted with a metal blade. Process until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Add the icing sugar and process until well blended.
- Add the ground almonds, salt, vanilla and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the flour and pulse the mixture until it just starts to form a ball and stop. Remove the mixture from the food processor bowl and place onto cling film and form into two flat discs. Wrap each disk separately and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, you can freeze the 2nd dough disk to use another time.
- Once chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick.
- Carefully place the dough into a 24cm tart tin and press the dough against the bottom and edges of the tin to ensure it is well fitted. If the dough cracks or splits simply patch with additional pastry. Trim the top of the tart – the easiest way to do this is to roll the rolling pin over the top of the tart case which will trim the edges neatly.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and repeat with the second portion of dough.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and line the tarts with baking paper and add dried beans or pastry weights and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly coloured.
- Set aside while you make the filling.
- To make the filling combine the rhubarb, brown sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and place over a medium high heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the rhubarb has broken down, between 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and combine the ricotta, caster sugar, egg, vanilla extract and cooled rhubarb in a food processor and process until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the tart base and bake for 15 minutes, or until set.
- Once cooled, top with the sliced strawberries and dust with icing sugar.
