Flaky Fruit Tart

Flaky Fruit Tart:

Fruit topping:

• 1 peach
• 1 ½ cups strawberries
• 5 basil leaves
• 2 mint leaves
• ½ tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Tart:

• ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 10 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
• sugar

Ricotta topping:

• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Chop strawberries and peach into pieces that are roughly the same size. Thinly slice basil and mint leaves.
3. Combine fruit, herbs, sugar, and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge while you prepare the other parts of the tart (stir occasionally).
4. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place one sheet of phyllo dough. Brush generously with melted butter and add another layer of phyllo dough, repeating until you use all 10 sheets. Don’t stress about how thin the phyllo sheets are; they will tear, but it will be fine because there are so many layers.
5. Brush the top of the last sheet with butter, and sprinkle a pinch of sugar on top.
6. Roll up the sides of the tart, to make a sort of “crust”. Brush the crust with butter. I rolled up tinfoil around the edges of the tart, to keep it from unrolling while it baked (see pictures at the bottom of the post).
7. Bake tart for ~12 minutes, until puffed up and golden brown (it will look like a giant hot pocket!) Set aside to let tart cool while you prepare the ricotta topping.
8. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat ricotta at medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and cinnamon and beat for another minute. Set aside (in the fridge!)
9. Rinse out your bowl and whisk attachment and whip the heavy cream and vanilla until the cream forms stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture.
10. Assemble your tart! Once the phyllo is completely cool, top with the ricotta mixture, then the fruit. Serve immediately.
11. Yield: 6-8 servings

I’m just as excited as anyone about pumpkin spice season starting, but we’ve got to take advantage of perfect summer fruit while we still can! This combination of buttery, flakey crust; sweet ricotta cream; and bright, flavorful fruit is exactly the way to do that.

There’s a lot of components to this dish, but they’re all very simple, so don’t let that intimidate you. It all times out really well- the fruit sits and gets syrup-y while you make the tart, which cools while you make the cream. And you’re ready to assemble in about an hour!

You can also make the separate components ahead of time and assemble right before you want to serve, but I think you’ll have a hard time waiting!

Here’s what my tinfoil-supported tart crust looked like before and after baking- it really puffs up!