Ingredients for 6-8 people: For the shortcrust pastry:300 g plain Flour (plus a handful to dust the cake tin) 125 g butter (plus a knob to grease the cake tin) 125 g sugar1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks 1 pinch of salt *** For the filling:100 g rice150 g dark chocolate50 g unsweetened cocoa powder100 g sugar2 Amaretti biscuits½ glass milk1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks50 g pine nuts50 g raisins1 small glass Vin Santo
To prepare the shortcrust pastry: sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, the egg and egg yolks, the softened butter cut into small pieces (take it out of the fridge at least 20 minutes beforehand) and the salt. First mix with a fork, then with your hands – making sure they’re cold and working rapidly – until you have a ball of dough. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.
Now prepare the filling: soak the raisins in a little warm water for 15 minutes. Boil the rice, strain and leave it to cool in a bowl. Add the dark chocolate, melted in a small saucepan in a bain-marie and cooled. Then add the egg and egg yolks, the sugar, Vin Santo, milk, raisins (squeezed thoroughly with your hands), sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, pine nuts and crumbled Amaretti biscuits. Stir well to amalgamate all the ingredients.
Grease a springform cake tin (dimeter approx. 26 cm) with butter and dust with flour, line the bottom and sides with ⅔ of the shortcrust pastry, prick it here and there with a fork, tip in the filling and level the surface. Roll out the rest of the pastry; cut part of it into strips and use them create a lattice on the surface of the tart, cut the rest into small triangles and arrange them, one beside the other, all abound the edge – these are the “bischeri”. Bake in a preheated oven, at 180 °C, for 45 minutes. Leave to cool down well, then remove the tart from the tin and transfer it onto a plate.
“Torta co’ bischeri” is an old Tuscan recipe, typical of the area around Pisa. The tart is still prepared today on festive occasions and is usually served with Vin Santo. The “bischeri” are the pointed tips of pastry that decorate the edge. In Tuscan dialect “bischero” is a term used for someone who isn’t very bright; it’s mainly used jokingly, also to rebuke someone with the expression “un fa’ i’ bischero” (= don’t be an idiot).