Ingredients for a 24 cm diameter tart tin:250 g plain Flour2 egg yolks100 g butter100 g cane sugar2 tsp baking powder1 untreated lemon, the grated peel1 pinch of salt500 ml milk3 egg yolks40 g plain Flour30 g cane sugar20 g pine nuts350 g fresh sheep’s milk ricotta1 jar Viallella2 tbsp icing sugar30 g pine nuts icing sugar
Prepare the shortcrust pastry: sift the flour together with the baking powder, pile it up on your work surface and create a “well” in it. In the centre put the sugar, egg yolks, salt, grated lemon peel and softened butter (taken out of the fridge at least 20 minutes beforehand and cut in pieces), and quickly mix everything together. Continue until you form a ball of dough, then put it in a cool place to rest for half an hour. Now prepare the pastry cream: bring the milk to the boil; then turn off the heat and leave it to cool down. In the meanwhile, in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, beat the sugar with the egg yolks; incorporate the flour a little at a time, and then, very slowly, add the milk stirring continuously. Put the saucepan back over a low heat and, stirring constantly, bring the pastry cream almost to the boil, removing it from the stove just before it begins. Then leave it to cool down. If any lumps should form, beat it a little with a whisk. Prepare the ricotta and Viallella cream: press the ricotta through a sieve into a bowl and mix it with the icing sugar. When the mixture is smooth and homogenous, add the Viallella and stir well to amalgamate everything.
Take the shortcrust pastry and, using a rolling pin, roll out ⅔ of it on a sheet of greaseproof paper; try to shape it into a disc with a diameter a couple of centimetres larger than the tart tin. Transfer the pastry dough into the tin with the greaseproof paper, making sure that both the paper and the dough adhere around the sides as well (you can also use your fingers to spread the dough out directly in the bottom and around the sides of the cake tin, after having greased it with butter and dusted with flour). Distribute the ricotta and Viallella cream over the bottom and level it with a spatula. Stir the pine nuts into the pastry cream and pour it on top of the first layer. Roll out the remaining ⅓ of the dough and lay it on top of the filling. Fold the pastry in slightly all around the edge, to seal the tart. Sprinkle with icing sugar and pine nuts and cook in a preheated oven, at 150 °C, for roughly 45 minutes. If you see that the tart begins to brown too much – it should just become biscuit coloured – cover it, after 25-30 minutes, with kitchen foil. When you take the tart out of the oven, let it cool down and then dust it with icing sugar, sifted through a tea strainer.