ITALIAN RICOTTA PIE RECIPE | Crostata di Ricotta

Hello guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. Today we're making a ricotta crostata. Crostata is basically an Italian version of pie and the dough is a little bit different but equally delicious. The reason why I'm making a ricotta pie is because a while ago I posted a ricotta cake and a lot of people actually really enjoyed this recipe so I thought why not making a ricotta pie version of this cake. So let's get started. Start with some slightly softened butter and sugar. I'm using powdered sugar so that the dough is way smoother but it's not a requirement if you don't have it but I do suggest it. A little pinch of salt and then I finely grate some lemon zest. About half of a big lemon or even the zest of a whole small lemon. I give it a quick whisk and I add the honey which not only will make the dough nice and golden but it will also make it easier to whisk the butter and sugar together. Now I add in the two eggs and I incorporate them in the mixture. Now it's time to sift in the flour with half a teaspoon of baking powder. I whisk everything up until nicely combined but don't over whisk it. Oh my gosh I'm making a mess because my bowl is a bit too tiny. Here we go. This is the consistency that the dough should have. If you press down with your finger it won't stick to your hands. Perfect. Now I make it into a flat shape and I let it rest in the fridge into some saran wrap for around an hour. For the filling I'm using ricotta without the excess liquid and I sift in some icing sugar to avoid clumps. For flavor I'm adding a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and some lemon zest again. Whisk it up and add an egg too. So when I went to the grocery store there wasn't the usual brand of ricotta that I like so I grabbed this other one and it was quite grainy so in that case if you have the same problem I suggest using a mixer or even a blender and you'll get the smoothest result. Now it's perfect. I mean you don't need to make it super smooth if you don't want to take the extra time but it's a little bit nicer. I put the cream back in the bowl and I add a little bit more lemon zest because I love it and some chocolate chips. Now I set it aside. Alright once the dough is ready I place it onto some parchment paper and I sprinkle a little bit of flour on top and on the bottom. I roll it out with a rolling pin until it's nice and thin. Every once in a while I suggest flipping it to make sure it's not sticking too much. Butter an eight and a half or nine inch pan and set the dough in it. Just like that. I use the rolling pin to cut the extra dough out and I set it aside. I poke some holes with a fork to make sure the crostata cooks evenly. Now I spread the ricotta cream that I prepared earlier. Nice and smooth. With the extra dough I make the classic crostata stripes. They're not too perfect but that's okay. I place some horizontally and some diagonally. I make sure to press the ends down well on the edge of the pie. Bake in a preheated oven at 330 Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. When it's ready it will look quite puffy but give it some time, let it cool down and it will look great. I decorate it with a little bit of icing sugar that makes it even more inviting. I take it out of the pan and I'm ready to serve it. Those melted chocolate chips look so good. Oh my gosh, I love the lemon zest and the cinnamon and then the chocolate chips. They just go so well with the ricotta. It's honestly a must try recipe if you love ricotta in the first place but even if you don't give it a try because I think you'll like this recipe. Anyways, that's it for this video. Thank you so much for following me along and don't forget to hit a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't yet. See you next time, bye bye!