Crostata Amalfitana
Crema e amarene, baked into the shell
A lattice-topped shortcrust tart from the Amalfi coast, sometimes called pizza di crema e amarene: lemon-scented pastry cream and dark sour cherries baked right into the pastry, not layered on top of it once it's cooled.
This is a different tart from the crostata di fragole e crema pasticcera already on this blog, and worth keeping separate rather than folding in as a variation. That one is assembled cold: a blind-baked shell, chilled custard spread in afterward, fresh fruit arranged on top. This one — the crostata amalfitana, known around Naples as pizza di crema e amarene — goes into the oven already full. The custard and the cherries bake together with the pastry, which changes both the texture of the cream and the whole point of the dessert: this is a keeper, meant to sit in the fridge for a couple of days and taste better on the second, not a same-day birthday centerpiece.
The custard itself is a standard cornstarch or potato-starch crema pasticcera, scented with lemon zest steeped in the hot milk rather than folded in as extract — the same logic, different delivery. It isn't the dense, flour-thickened true Neapolitan crema pasticcera that holds a piped riccio on a zeppola; that version would turn gummy under an oven's heat inside a pastry shell. The starch-based cream is what actually survives baking and slicing cleanly.
Baked in, not spread on after — that's the whole difference between this and the birthday crostata already on the blog.
Amarene sciroppate — dark sour cherries preserved in syrup — go in twice: a scattering on the bare pastry base before the cream goes in, and a second layer dotted over the custard's surface and pressed in slightly, so cherries turn up throughout rather than only floating on top. The lattice on top is standard shortcrust technique, the same crossed strips used across Italian baking, though a full top crust works too if lattice-weaving isn't worth the trouble that day.
The recipe
For one 24 cm tart, serving 8. Chill the dough well before rolling — a warm pasta frolla is unworkable and shrinks unevenly in the oven.
Crostata Amalfitana — lattice tart with lemon pastry cream and dark sour cherries. Click to enlarge.
350 gFlour 00
180 g, cold, cubedButter
140 gPowdered sugar
4Egg yolks
Zest of 1Lemon
A pinchSalt
500 mlWhole milk
3Egg yolks (for the cream)
125 gSugar (for the cream)
50 gPotato starch or cornstarch
Zest of 1, in stripsLemon (for the cream)
200-250 g, well drainedAmarene sciroppate
To finishPowdered sugar
1
Work the cold butter into the flour until sandy, either by hand or in a mixer. Add the powdered sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, and salt, and bring together quickly into a smooth dough — don't overwork it. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.
2
Warm the milk with the strips of lemon zest until just below a boil, then remove and discard the zest. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale, whisk in the starch, then pour in the hot milk gradually, whisking constantly.
3
Return everything to the pan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking continuously, until thick. Transfer to a bowl, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface, and let cool completely.
4
Roll out two-thirds of the chilled dough to about 3-4 mm and line a buttered, floured 24 cm tart pan. Prick the base with a fork.
5
Scatter some of the drained cherries over the bare base. Spread the cooled cream evenly on top with a spatula, then dot the remaining cherries over the cream, pressing them in slightly.
Drain the cherries well — leftover syrup thins the cream and can make the base soggy.
6
Roll the remaining dough and cut into strips about 1.5-2 cm wide. Lay them over the filling in a crossed lattice pattern, trimming the excess at the edge.
7
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes, until the lattice is deeply golden. Cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar and slicing — this tart is better the next day, once it's had time to set.
Related
Crostata di Fragole e Crema Pasticcera
The cold-assembled version of a crema crostata — chilled custard, fresh fruit, no baking the filling. See
the full recipe.
Pasta Frolla
The shortcrust shell underneath this and most crostate on the blog. See
the full recipe.
Buon appetito.
