Cocoa tart with ricotta cheese and raspberries

• 45 minutes to prepare • 50 minutes to cook • Serves 12

Another rainy Saturday afternoon with Nina 

I was going to call this recipe “Easy cocoa tart with ricotta cheese and raspberries” but that even seemed redundant for a pastry that it is literally made the way it sounds. 

However, it was very delicious and a perfect vehicle for my everlasting obsession – sugared ricotta.

It is always a revelation to me that just the combination of ricotta cheese, cocoa and sugar made the most gluttonous, beautifully soft, cream.

I am sure that it is already a regular thing at your place, because it is just so delicious and almost effortless to make. Just use a good quality store-bought ricotta for these tarts. Just as it is, or jazzed up with some cocoa powder, it makes a wonderful sweet treat.

If raspberries are not in season, or are too expensive, then strawberries or blueberries would be good substitutes.

Here are ingredients for a 12-serving recipe (24-cm diameter baking pan):

 

For the pastry

 

200 g flour 00

50 g cocoa powder
100 g sugar
100 g butter
1 egg 

For the stuffing

350 g  ricotta cheese
150 g sugar
50 g cocoa powder

For the garnish

100 g raspberries

1. Cut the cold butter into cubes and knead it quickly with flour, cocoa powder and sugar
2. Stir in the egg 
3. Form a ball, wrap it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes
4. Drain ricotta cheese in a colander and store it in the refrigerator. When it is dry, sift it and mix it in a bowl with sugar and cocoa powder
5. Preheat oven to 180°C
6. Grease and flour the baking pan, then cover bottom and sides with the pastry cut into a flattened disc-shape, about 5 mm thick
7. Pour the ricotta cream into the pan
8. Distribute the raspberries over and press them down
9. Level the ricotta cheese and cover it with the remaining pastry sealing well the edges. Drill some small holes to allow air to be released during the cooking from inside the tart
10. Bake at 180°C (convection oven, middle shelf ) until the surface of the cake becomes golden (about 50 minutes)
11. Once cooked, pull out the tart from the oven and let it cool

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.