peach black raspberry crostata

Fruits have arrived to Northern Ohio in  the form of pretty little peaches and super-sweet black raspberries. Now we can officially call it summer!

Plus, I'm down to one week left of the crazy summer session at work.  Life is good.



So, unlike the kohlrabi and beets we've gotten lately from Fresh Fork that spent days/weeks in the fridge, peaches and (especially!) red raspberries have a super-short shelf life.  So, I needed to come up with an easy recipe to use them both quickly.

This is a really easy pastry to make (and it looks quite impressive, if I do say so myself).  It's light, with a flaky crust and the fruits give it a sweet-tart taste.  This is what summer should taste like.


Peach Black Raspberry Crostata
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• one pie crust (you can use a store bought crust, but most aren't vegetarian/vegan)
• 2 small peaches
• 1/2 pint black raspberries
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar

Start by preparing the pie crust.  I used this recipe.  After the pie crust dough is made, refrigerate it for at least a half hour before rolling it out.  Meanwhile, prepare the filling.  Wash the raspberries and set them aside in a medium bowl.  Wash and (leaving the skin on) thinly slice the peaches into the raspberry bowl.  Add the flour and 1 tbsp sugar.  Mix filling ingredients together.  Taste the fruit at this point to see if it's sweet enough for your taste.  One tablespoon of sugar will likely make a fairly tart crostata, so add more sugar if you'd like.  Refrigerate fruit until the dough is ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Set the refrigerated dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper.  Roll the dough out until it's as thin as pie crust (about 12" round/oval).  Pour the fruit filling onto the middle of the crust, leaving about 3 inches along the edges.  Fold/pleat the crust in 2/3 inch sections to form the crostata shape.  Brush the crostata with water and sprinkle it with sugar, so when it bakes it browns up nicely and has a sweet crunch.  Transfer the parchment paper you rolled it out on onto a baking sheet.  Bake crostata for about a half hour, until it's lightly browned.  Serve warm, at room temperature, or refrigerated.