Jam Crostata

Who gets up at 4:30 on a Sunday morning to bake a crostata and read a book anyway? Silly me.

I just read the most amazing story of patriotism, courage, drive, adversity and probably 10 other descriptive words that escape me at the moment. I know the book has been out for a while, but I don't seem to ever get around to reading them until someone decides they are going to make a movie, then I gotta read and research it thoroughly to see what Hollywood embellishes once they take it from the pages to the big screen. Nothing worse than a true story made fiction by Hollywood in my opinion so I hope they do these men and the surviving members of the families of these men justice. It's called the Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.

I love this recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. This is from her cookbook "Giada's Family Dinners" and the recipe is actually titled Plum Crostata, but I use whatever jam I have on the shelf from canning season. This is Peach. Give it a go, both the Crostata AND the book.

 It's truly a day worth spent!  How fun is that!

Jam Crostata

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups flour
2 Tbs sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
10 Tbs (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2" pieces
3-4 Tbs ice water
3/4 cup preserves
1 Tbs toasted sliced almonds (optional)
Confectioners' sugar for dusting (optional)

Instructions

Combine the flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt in a food processor and whir to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the ice water bit by bit, pulsing until moist clumps form. Gather the dough into a ball; flatten it into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough on a large sheet of parchment paper to an 11 inch round. Transfer dough on the parchment paper to a large, heavy baking sheet. Spread the preserves over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the dough border over the filling to form an 8-inch round, pleating the crust loosely and pinching to seal any cracks in the dough.

Bake the crostata until the crust is golden, about 40 minutes. Put the baking sheet on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then slide a metal spatula under the crust to free the crostata from the parchment so it doesn't stick while cooling. Cool to lukewarm. Sprinkle with the almonds and dust with the confectioners' sugar if using. Transfer the crostata to a platter and serve.

Recipe from Giada's Family Dinners Cookbook