Ingredients
FOR THE BASE
250 grams of shortcrust pastry
a handful of beans to cook the shortcrust pastry white
FOR THE GANACHE
150 grams of chopped dark chocolate
150 milliliters of liquid cream
15 grams of butter
FOR THE STRAWBERRY COMPOTE
250 grams of fresh strawberries
the juice of half a lemon
4 tablespoons powdered sugar (but adjust to how sweet you like it)
Directions:
Prepare the shortcrust pastry. Preheat oven to 180 degrees static. Butter and flour the cake pan, cover the bottom with a layer of shortcrust pastry and then make a nice edge one and a half to two centimetres high. Cover the shortcrust pastry with parchment paper, place a handful of beans on top (but not too many) and bake for 20 minutes.
Then remove the beans and baking paper and let the shortcrust pastry brown for another 5-10 minutes: remove it from the oven and let it cool.
For the ganache: Place the cream in a non-stick saucepan with the butter, break up the dark chocolate and, when the cream comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add the chocolate. Mix carefully until the chocolate and cream have combined into a soft dark cream. When the tart is cold, pour in the ganache and let it rest at room temperature. Ganache is very sensitive to temperatures: it tends to soften in the heat and become very hard in the cold, so this dessert should not be assembled so far in advance and cannot go in the refrigerator otherwise the ganache will harden excessively.
For the compote, wash and clean the strawberries, cut them into small pieces and place them in a non-stick pan with the lemon juice and icing sugar: cook over high heat until a sort of gelée has formed and leave to cool. When the ganache seems creamy but firm enough, pour in the strawberry compote and decorate with a few lemon zestas.
THE PAIRING: strawberries and chocolate are not a simple combination. We recommend a Vernaccia di Serrapetrona Docg produced by the Marche-based company Quacquarini. A very particular wine, a red sparkling wine the result of three different fermentations (round and rich perlage) that will know a further touch of joy to this dessert.
Borrowed from: https://www.sicilianicreativiincucina.it/crostata-di-cioccolato-con-composta-di-fragole/
Shortbread Pastry
Ingredients:
250 grams flour 00
125 grams of cold butter
100 grams of sugar
the zest of a grated lemon
vanilla extract
a yolk
a pinch of salt
With this dose you will obtain approximately 450 grams of shortcrust pastry. Place the flour on the work surface and make a hole in the center: arrange the cold butter cut into small pieces and work quickly with your fingertips. Combine the yolk, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and pinch of salt and work the dough until smooth and homogeneous, without lumps of butter. It must be consistent, so much so that you can make one ‘ball’ that you will wrap in food film and put in the refrigerator to rest for at least 30 minutes. If you want a softer shortcrust pastry, place a whole egg instead of just the yolk. The shortcrust pastry must be baked in a static oven at 180 C degrees, obviously the duration depends on the use you make of it: 10-12 minutes are enough for the biscuits,for the tarts with jam it will take about 40 minutes.
If you want to make a base for cream tarts or fruit cakes, the shortcrust pastry should be rolled out in the cake pan (always buttered and floured), pricked on the bottom with a fork and then covered with baking paper and filled with dried legumes to prevent the pastry from rising, forming unsightly depressions: it is called ‘baking in white’. The time is about 15 minutes, but we suggest removing the legumes and baking paper at the end and letting it cook for another two minutes so that it becomes nice and golden.