In the summertime you find baby pears (known as pere coscia in Italian) all over the local farmers markets around Argentario. Yellow-skinned, a little firmer and crunchier than regular pears, they make great toddler-sized snacks that cause minimal mess, which is one of the reasons we love them. I’ve also been looking for a way to cook with them, for those occasions when we don’t eat them fast enough (fruit ripens so quickly in a warm, summer kitchen). So along came this tart.
Ricotta crostata is a favourite dessert in these parts – perhaps dotted with chocolate chips or layered with lip-smacking sour cherry jam or compote made from visciole cherries (Prunus cerasus). It’s from a tradition more notably found in Lazio and, especially Rome, where it is a well-known dessert of the Jewish Ghetto. In this part of the Maremma – which is closer to Rome than Florence, and is home to villages with a strong Jewish history, such as Pitigliano – it’s easy to find these influences.
This very simple dessert is not overly sweet and is pretty enough to present to guests. The pears are briefly poached in water with a squeeze of lemon juice until just tender but not too soft. The pie dish is layered with the shortcrust pastry dough and smooth ricotta filling and the poached pears are carefully pushed one by one into the filling. Once baked, the tart is best when left to settle overnight in the fridge and eaten the next day – chilled if it’s summer, and room temperature otherwise.