Crostata
|
Crostata with lemon ginger filling | |
| Type | Tart |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Main ingredients | Pastry crust, jam or ricotta, fruit |
| Variations | Crostata di frutta, crostata di ricotta, many other sweet or savoury variations |
 Cookbook: Crostata  Media: Crostata | |
A crostata is an Italian baked tart or pie, also known as coppi in Naples and sfogliate in Lombardy.[1] The earliest known use of crostata in its modern sense can be traced to the cookbooks Libro de Arte Coquinaria (Art of Cooking) by Martino da Como, published circa 1465,[2] and Cuoco napolitano (Neapolitan recipes), published in the late 15th century containing a recipe (number 94) titled Crostata de Caso, Pane, etc..[3]
A crostata is a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart"[4] that may also be baked in a pie plate.[5]
Historically, it also referred to an "open-faced sandwich or canapé" because of its crusted appearance,[2] or a chewet, a type of meat pie.[6]
Etymology
The name derives from the Latin word crustāta, the feminine past participle of crustāre (to encrust), and ultimately from the noun crusta (crust).[7] The French term croustade derives from it, from which the English term custard derives.[7] The word crostata appeared in the earliest Italian dictionaries, included in the 1612 dictionary Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca (compiled from 1591-1608)[8] by the Accademia della Crusca and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,[9] and the 1617 dictionary Il memoriale della lingua italiana: ridotto in ordine d'alfabeto per commodità del lettore by Giacomo Pergamino, in which it was defined as a type of torta.[10]
Description
Traditionally, a crostata consisted of a base, usually three layers, of friable dough "flavoured with clarified fat and butter".[11] Today, shortcrust pastry is used instead. It is differentiated from a torta by its filling: a crostata has an inconsistent chunky filling, whereas a torta has a consistent filling made of blended ingredients.[11] There are "endless variations"[12] of both sweet and savoury crostata,[5] the sweet ones usually served as a dessert.
Sweet variations use fruit preserves as a filling, typically apricot, cherry, peach or nectarine, or berries.[12] The crostata can also be blind-baked and then filled with pastry cream (crema pasticciera) topped with pieces of fresh fruit; this is called crostata di frutta. In his 1570 cookbook Opera dell'arte del cucinare, Bartolomeo Scappi included a recipe for a crostata of plums and sour cherries,[11] and others for quince, and pears. A modern version is crostata alla nutella, which has Nutella as the filling.[13]
Ingredients for a savoury crostata may include meat, fish, or vegetables,[11] which are pre-cooked.[5] Opera dell'arte del cucinare included a recipe for a "crostata of crabmeat and shrimp", and also stated that to instead make a torta, the shrimp and crab should be crushed.[11] A popular sweet variant, especially in central Italy, is crostata di ricotta, made with ricotta mixed with sugar and lemon zest, and which may additionally include cocoa or raisins.[14][15][16]
Scappi included many recipes for crostata in Opera dell'arte del cucinare. For meat and seafood based crostata, there were recipes using pork jowls or prosciutto,[17] crayfish, anchovies, or oysters. Other savoury crostata recipes included a crostata with creamy cheese referred to as a butirata,[17] those with truffles or field mushrooms,[18] one with artichoke or cardoon hearts,[18] and one with "the viscera of any sort of turtle".[19]
Notes
- ↑ Capatti & Montanari 1999, p. 60–61.
- 1 2 Scappi 1570, p. 252.
- ↑ Scully 2000, p. 65.
- ↑ Corley 2011, p. 129.
- 1 2 3 Adams & Rivard 2002, p. 122.
- ↑ Weekley 1967, p. 402.
- 1 2 Skeat 1911, p. 125.
- ↑ Sessa 2001.
- ↑ Accademia della Crusca and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 1612.
- ↑ Pergamino 1617, p. 145.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Capatti & Montanari 1999, p. 60.
- 1 2 Worthington 2012.
- ↑ Giallo Zafferano: Crostata all Nutella.
- ↑ Cushing.
- ↑ Rocco.
- ↑ Giallo Zafferano: Crostata di ricotta.
- 1 2 Scappi 1570, p. 254.
- 1 2 Scappi 1570, p. 463–464.
- ↑ Scappi 1570, p. 523.
References
- Adams, Jody; Rivard, Ken (2002). In the Hands of A Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant. HarperCollins. ISBN 068816837X.
- Baretti, Giuseppe Marco Antonio (1816). Dizionario italiano, ed inglese 1. Florence: Giovanni Marenigh.
- Capatti, Alberto; Montanari, Massimo (2003, original Italian in 1999). Italian cuisine. Arts and Traditions of the Table Series. Translated by Áine O'Healy (Columbia University Press). ISBN 0231122322. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - Chakhchakhian, Manouel (1804). Dizionario italiano-armeno-turco.
- Corley, Dinah (2011). Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself & Wrap with Style. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9781558324350.
- Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca. Accademia della Crusca and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Giovanni Alberto. 1612. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
- Cushing, Christine. "Crostata Di Ricotta". Food Network Canada. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
- Pergamino, Giacomo (1617). Il memoriale della lingua italiana: ridotto in ordine d'alfabeto per commodità del lettore. Giovanni Battista Giotti.
- Rocco, David. "Crostata di Ricotta". David Rocco's Amalfi Getaway. Cooking Channel. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
- Scappi, Bartolomeo (2008, original Italian in 1570). Ballerini, Luigi; Ciavolella, Massimo, eds. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L'Arte Et Prudenza D'Un Maestro Cuoco (the Art and Craft of a Master Cook). Lorenzo da Ponte Italian library series. Translated by Terence Scully. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802096241. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - Scully, Terence, ed. (2000). The Neapolitan Recipe Collection: Cuoco Napoletano. Translated by Terence Scully. New York: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472109723.
- Sessa, Mirella (2001). "Note del curatore". CRIBeCu - Accademia della Crusca - Scuola Normale Superiore. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
- Skeat, Walter William (1911). A concise etymological dictionary of the English language. Oxford: American Book Company. LCCN 11035890. OL 16525337M.
- Weekley, Ernest (1967). A-K. An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English 1 (Courier Dover Publications). ISBN 0486122875. LCCN 67-26968.
- "Crostata di ricotta". Giallo Zafferano. Banzai Media. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
- "Crostata alla Nutella". Giallo Zafferano. Banzai Media. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
External links
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