Crostata

Crostata () is an Italian baked tart or pie. The earliest known use of crostata in its modern sense can be traced to the cookbooks Libro de Arte Coquinaria (Book of the Art of Cooking) by Martino da Como, published Template:Circa,Template:Sfn and Cuoco napolitano (Neapolitan Cook), published in the late 15th century, containing a recipe (number 94) titled Crostata de Caso, Pane, etc..Template:Sfn

Crostata is a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart"Template:Sfn that may also be baked in a pie plate.Template:Sfn

Historically, it also referred to an "open-faced sandwich or canapé" because of its crusted appearance,Template:Sfn or a chewet, a type of meat pie.Template:Sfn

Etymology

The name derives from the Latin word crustāta, the feminine past participle of crustāre ('to encrust'), and ultimately from the noun crusta ('crust').Template:Sfn The French term croustade derives from it, from which the English term custard derives.Template:Sfn The word crostata appeared in the earliest Italian dictionaries, included in the 1612 dictionary Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (compiled from 1591 to 1608)Template:Sfn by the Accademia della Crusca and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Description

Traditionally, crostata consisted of a base, usually three layers, of friable dough "flavoured with clarified fat and butter".Template:Sfn Today, shortcrust pastry is used instead. It is differentiated from a torta by its filling: crostata has an inconsistent chunky filling, whereas a torta has a consistent filling made of blended ingredients.Template:Sfn

Crostata can be blind-baked, filled with pastry cream (crema pasticciera), and then 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,Template:Sfn and others for quince and pears. A modern version is crostata alla nutella, which has Nutella as the filling.Template:Sfn

Ingredients for a savoury crostata may include meat, fish or vegetables,Template:Sfn which are pre-cooked.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn A popular sweet variant, especially in central and south Italy, is crostata di ricotta, made with ricotta cheese mixed with sugar and lemon zest, and which may additionally include cocoa or raisins.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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,Template:Sfn crayfish, anchovies or oysters. Other savoury crostata recipes included a crostata with creamy cheese referred to as a butirata,Template:Sfn those with truffles or field mushrooms,Template:Sfn one with artichoke or cardoon hearts,Template:Sfn and one with "the viscera of any sort of turtle".Template:Sfn

See also

• List of Italian desserts and pastries
• Pastafrola – a version found in Greece, Egypt, and South America
• Linzer torte – an Austrian version

Further reading

• Accademia della Crusca and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa