Lemon Ricotta Tart

I had been planning to make an orange tart for our bookclub dinner, but had some freshly made ricotta which I didn't want to go to waste. I had just made the ricotta for my lasagna, when I read the recipe and realized it didn't call for ricotta. Oops! I still had plenty of Meyers lemons on hand, so decided to make this tart, thinking that a lemon tart would make an enjoyably cheery winter dessert.

The crust for the tart is adapted from Baking with Julia. The filling is adapted from The New Regional Italian Cuisine Cookbook via the Accidental Hedonist. And the only reason I adapted the recipe is I misread it, including the juice of two lemons rather than one, as the original recipe calls for.

Pasta Frolla recipe (enough for 1 bottom crust)

1 cup flour
2 1/2 TBLS sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 TBLS cold butter
1 egg-beaten


Combine the first 4 ingredients into a mixing bowl and blend together well.
Cut up the butter into 8 pieces. Place it all in mixing bowl, and use a pastry blender to “cut” it into the flour until until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Make a well in the middle of the mixing bowl then pour the beaten egg in. Mix as best as you can with a wooden spoon and don’t worry if it still looks like a bunch of dry crumbs and clumps, it’s suppose to.
Dump all of the dough and crumbs onto a flat working surface, then knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball. It should come together very quickly once you start kneading it. Pat it into a disk,wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 30 minutes. It is now ready to be rolled out.



Lemon Ricotta Filling

4 Large Meyers lemons
2 eggs
1 1/4 sugar
16 oz Ricotta Cheese
2 Tbsp powdered Sugar
10 TBS water


Zest and juice two of the lemons.
Whisk the eggs together with 3/4 cup of sugar until smooth. Fold in ricotta, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix until smooth.

Assembling and Baking

Preheat oven to 375º.

Roll out the crust and place in a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Pour in ricotta filling. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until filling is set.

While tart is baking, thinly slice lemons. In a saucepan, stir remaining 1/2 cup sugar into 10 tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. Simmer lemon slices for 5 minutes in the syrup. Allow slices to cool in the syrup. Remove and dry the slices. Place atop baked tart. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.