This big, dramatic, open-face fruit tart looks like it just came off the set of an Italian country magazine shoot. Better yet, it’s nearly no work. Bake the crust ahead when summer temperatures are cool. Whenever you feel like serving the dessert, slather it with the ricotta-mascarpone cream (done ahead as well) and top it with the fruit and herbs. Any single fruit or combo works, but ripe melons and stone fruits with berries are a favorite.
Star chef Mario Batali's outstanding vegetable pasta boasts juicy roasted tomatoes with asparagus, Broccolini and shavings of ricotta salata cheese.
Ingredients
This is celebration in a lasagne pan.
Reprinted from the November 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine. Recipe by Maggie Ruggiero.
All over southern Italy country people eat bowls of nutty-tasting whole-wheat kernels with creamy ricotta, sweet honey and dried fruit to celebrate the feast of Santa Lucia on December 13 and the planting of the new wheat.