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A crostata is an Italian baked tart or
pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...
, also known as ''coppi'' in Naples and ''sfogliata'' in
Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
. 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 circa 1465, and ''Cuoco napolitano'' (Neapolitan Cook), published in the late 15th century containing a recipe (number 94) titled ''Crostata de Caso, Pane, etc.''. A crostata is a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart" that may also be baked in a pie plate. Historically, it also referred to an "open-faced sandwich or canapé" because of its crusted appearance, or a ''chewet'', a type of meat pie.


Etymology

The name derives from the Latin word ''crustāta'', the feminine past participle of ''crustāre'' (to encrust), and ultimately from the noun ''crusta'' (crust). The French term '' croustade'' derives from it, from which the English term ''
custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...
'' derives. The word ''crostata'' appeared in the earliest Italian
dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...
, included in the 1612 dictionary '' Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca'' (compiled from 1591 to 1608) by the
Accademia della Crusca The Accademia della Crusca (; "Academy of the Bran"), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language ...
and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 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''.


Description

Traditionally, a crostata consisted of a base, usually three layers, of friable dough "flavoured with clarified fat and butter". Today, shortcrust pastry is used instead. It is differentiated from a ''torta'' by its filling: a crostata has an inconsistent chunky filling, whereas a ''torta'' has a consistent filling made of blended ingredients. There are "endless variations" of both sweet and savoury crostata, the sweet ones usually being served as a
dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...
. Sweet variations use fruit preserves as a filling, typically
apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...
,
cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...
, peach or nectarine, or berries. The crostata can also be blind-baked and then filled with pastry cream ('' crema pasticciera'') 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
plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...
s and
sour cherries ''Prunus cerasus'' (sour cherry, tart cherry, or dwarf cherry) is a species of ''Prunus'' in the subgenus '' Cerasus'' ( cherries), native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the sweet cherry (''Prunus avium''), but ...
, and others for
quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...
, and pears. A modern version is ''crostata alla nutella'', which has Nutella as the filling. Ingredients for a savoury crostata may include meat, fish, or vegetables, which are pre-cooked. ''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. A popular sweet variant, especially in central Italy, is ''crostata di ricotta'', made with ricotta mixed with sugar and lemon zest, and which may additionally include cocoa or raisins. Scappi included many recipes for crostata in ''Opera dell'arte del cucinare''. For meat and seafood based crostata, there were recipes using
pork jowl Pork jowl is a cut of pork from a pig's cheek. Different food traditions have used it as a fresh cut or as a cured pork product (with smoke and/or curing salt). As a cured and smoked meat in America it is called jowl bacon or, especially in ...
s or prosciutto,
crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...
, anchovies, or oysters. Other savoury crostata recipes included a crostata with creamy cheese referred to as a ''butirata'', those with truffles or field mushrooms, one with artichoke or
cardoon The cardoon, ''Cynara cardunculus'' (), also called the artichoke thistle, is a thistle in the family Asteraceae. It is a naturally occurring species that also has many cultivated forms, including the globe artichoke. It is native to the wester ...
hearts, and one with "the viscera of any sort of turtle".


See also

*
Pastafrola Pasta frola, pasta frolla ( el, πάστα φλώρα),Πάστ ...
, a version found in Greece, Egypt, and South America * Linzer torte, an Austrian version


Notes


References

* * * * * *
Accademia della Crusca The Accademia della Crusca (; "Academy of the Bran"), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language ...
and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa * * * * * * * * * *


External links

{{Commons category, Crostata Italian desserts Tarts Pies Renaissance cuisine