Bossy Italian Wife : Strawberry & Ricotta Tart

It's strawberry season! This is particularly exciting to me this year, god love me, I don't know why. But I was over-the-moon excited when I saw that strawberries were in season. More than the strawberries, I believe it was the fact that seasonal eating is about to be at it's best... and what better way to celebrate than with a strawberry and ricotta tart?!

I got this recipe from La Cucina Italiana, a magazine that I just LOVE with all my heart and soul. It's the fancy-pants side of authentic Italian cooking, and it rocks my little world. This was, in fact, my first ever tart. But, as they say, go big or go home, and as it turned out, I went big...and I took pictures, too!

Now that I am taking the long view on this tart, I feel I must insist you make it. It was heavenly. This tart was sent straight from the gods of tarty-tartness. You must taste it. And, I will also say that if I can nail a tart on my first try, I am confident in your abilities too. Even if you bomb, at least you can say you tried!

Italian cooking is simple: even the crust!

Whisk together your dry ingredients....

Cut up your COLD butter, and it must be COLD.

Add it in....

And I kid you not: crumble it between your finger until it's all mealy.

Add two tablespoons of water, and VIOLA! Tart crust.

Ah, but not so fast! Now you have to press it down....

Wrap in saran, and then refrigerate for at least an hour.

After the hour, lay it out on a floured surface....

And make it a "crust." You are supposed to use a tart pan with a removable bottom, but I didn't have time to go searching the whole of Sussex County for one of those. So I free handed this crust in a springform pan. Works just as well... and looks "rustic"

To bake your crust, you must apply parchment paper and then add dried beans or pie weights... guess which one I don't have....

Okay, I have crust! Now for that filling!

I was supposed to use orange essence water in the crust, but I didn't have that. Again, one of those things I wasn't wasting time trying to find--no offense to orange essence water anywhere--BUT I had rose water, and so it was rose water I used!