Crostata

The name derives from the Latin word crustāta, the feminine past participle of crustāre (to encrust), and ultimately from the noun crusta (crust).[7] The French term croustade derives from it, from which the English term custard derives.[7] The word crostata appeared in the earliest Italian dictionaries, included in the 1612 dictionary Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca (compiled from 1591-1608)[8] by the Accademia della Crusca and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,[9] 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.[10]

Traditionally, a crostata consisted of a base, usually three layers, of friable dough "flavoured with clarified fat and butter".[11] 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.[11] There are "endless variations"[12] of both sweet and savoury crostata,[5] the sweet ones usually being served as a dessert.

Sweet variations use fruit preserves as a filling, typically apricot, cherry, peach or nectarine, or berries.[12] 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 plums and sour cherries,[11] and others for quince, and pears. A modern version is crostata alla nutella, which has Nutella as the filling.[13]

Ingredients for a savoury crostata may include meat, fish, or vegetables,[11] which are pre-cooked.[5] 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.[11] 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.[14][15][16]

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,[17] crayfish, anchovies, or oysters. Other savoury crostata recipes included a crostata with creamy cheese referred to as a butirata,[17] those with truffles or field mushrooms,[18] one with artichoke or cardoon hearts,[18] and one with "the viscera of any sort of turtle".[19]