Saturday, August 9, 2008

Crostata

This is rustic Italian tart. It has got a rough look compared to pie or tart.It is usually made with fruits,but I saw a vegan crostata with leftover vegetables by Giada de Laurentiis in Food Network and decided to go for it.I did make some changes though.

The GDL recipe(goes here) uses mascarpone cheese and butter in the dough,but some research and I found that the dough can be made with olive oil only. Here's my recipe

Ingredients:
Crostata dough:
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Olive Oil - 1.5 tbspn
Salt: 1/2 tspn
Ice-cold water :as needed to form a dough

Filling:
Kale :1/2 cup
Carrot:1
Onion:1 small
Corn Kernels: 2 tbspn
Oregano: 1 tspn
Salt & pepper :as per taste
Shredded Mozzarella :1/4 cup
Parmesan:1tbspn

Preparation:
Dough:
Mix together flour,salt and oil using ice-cold water in a bowl.Do not knead much.Just mix such that a crumbly mixture forms.Pack this dough into a plastic sheet or ziploc bag and press to form a circle or round with hands and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Filling:
Chop onions,carrots and kale.Heat oil in a pan.Add the chopped onions,carrot and kale and saute.Add salt,pepper and oregano.Instead of oregano,you can add any seasoning you like.Also you can add any vegetables you want.The GDL recipe specifies shallots,mushrooms and other leftover vegetables.Cook till kale wilts. Allow to cool.Once cooled mix with mozzarella cheese.

Making a crostata:
Preheat oven to 400F.

Take out the chilled dough and roll it out into a big disc with 1/2 inch thickness.I rolled it into a big circle and then checked the size by putting in my pie pan.It should be a bit more longer(or is it wider?) than the pie pan.This is because after filling the crostata you will fold over the edges over the veggies.

After you get the required size,keep it in a greased circular baking dish and then fill it with veggie -cheese mix.Spread evenly all around the circle leaving a little border.After filling slowly fold the edges of the dough over the veggies forming a crust.Brush the folded edges with milk or oil/butter for getting a brown 'crusty' look.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Cool and serve by cutting into wedges. The dish after baking was tasty but some part of the folded crust was too "crusty" but still tasty.


After cutting into wedges



The dish is very tasty and instead of cutting a big crostata into smaller wedges we can make smaller crostata for individual servings.Veggie crostata can be served as appetizers and fruit crostatas as dessert.

This dish goes to A.W.E.D Italian hosted by DK of Culinary bazaar as a vegetarian snack/appetizer


This Italian dish also goes to Independence Day Event hosted by Pooja of CreativeIdeas 'coz India also has the same three colors of Italian flag and like this dish is a medley of people,languages and ofcourse recipes



3 Comments:

Pooja said...

thank you for your entry dear Sweatha.

Vaishali said...

Hi Curry Leaf, I was just watching an apple crostada being made on Food TV and thinking how wonderful it'd be to veganize the recipe. Your crust with olive oil sounds divine, particularly for a savory crostada.

lubnakarim06 said...

Crostata looks awesome.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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