Aqra bil-Malti: Riċetta: Torta tal-irkotta u frawli frisk, b’għaġina tal-lewż

With the abundance of fresh strawberries on the market at the moment, one should take advantage and use them as much as possible. There are many recipes around and many times they include strawberries and cream or strawberries and chocolate. This pie includes ricotta in a pastry which is slightly different as it includes ground almonds. It is best to serve this pie up to an hour after making it to make sure that the pastry does not turn soggy.  

Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Serves: 8 people

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 275 g flour
• 150 g cold butter, diced
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar
• 100 g ground almonds
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

For the filling:

• 500 g ricotta
• 100 g caster sugar
• 150 ml double cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 250 strawberries, cleaned and cut lengthwise
• 75 g sugar

Instructions: 

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture reaches a consistency similar to breadcrumbs. Add the ground almonds and mix. Add the eggs and mix the ingredients together using a spoon. Take the dough out and knead it until it becomes smooth. Seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to a temperature of 200°C.
3. Grease a 20cm pie dish and cover the bottom with baking paper.  
4. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 cm and cover the pie dish with it. Cover with baking paper and fill with dried beans. Bake blind for 15 minutes then take it out of the oven, remove the dried beans and the baking paper and keep cooking for another 15-20 minutes until it turns golden. Let it cool completely.
5. In a bowl, beat together the ricotta, caster sugar and vanilla essence until you are left with a smooth mixture. In another bowl beat the cream until it thickens. Fold the cream gently into the ricotta mixture.
6. Spread the ricotta mixture on to the pastry and smoothen. Place strawberry slices on top.
7. Prepare a large bowl of cold water. In a small pan melt 75g of sugar on a moderate heat without mixing it until it starts to turn golden brown. As soon as that happens, remove the pan and lower the bottom into the cold water. Pour the caramel on to the strawberries.  

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Look at this list of fruit and vegetables according to the season