Ricotta Torte

This Ricotta Torte is a recipe I developed in celebration of my ongoing hosted tours to Puglia and Basilicata.

Ingredients

For the pastry

For the filling

For the pastry: combine flour and sugar in food processor. Pulse butter until the texture of coarse breadcrumbs then quickly blend in the wine. Roll pastry into a large ball and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 190’C (fan forced 170’C). Roll pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper and line the bottom and sides (leaving 1cm pasty to sit over the rim) of 23cm springform cake tin. Cover the pastry with baking paper and weigh down with dried beans or rice. Blind bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Discard paper and beans and return to oven to dry out the base for around 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce heat to 160’C (fan forced 140’C).
If ricotta is not very smooth, push through strainer to remove any lumps. Beat egg yolks and sugar with electric beaters in a large bowl until thick and pale, then beat in the sieved ricotta. Fold in the lemon or orange zest.
Beat the egg whites until they are stiff but not dry. Fold gently into the ricotta mixture then the candied orange and drained raisins, spoon into the pie shell, and bake for around 50 minutes or until the top of the torte is golden brown and filling is set. Do not be concerned that the filling rises as it will settle as it cools.
Remove and cool to room temperature before serving.

This is lovely served after another Pugliese dish like Orecchiette with Broccoli Raab.

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