Italian lemon tart with a crisp pasta frolla shell and a bright, silky lemon curd filling.
About this Italian recipe
Crostata is the classic Italian tart made with pasta frolla, a tender sweet shortcrust. Southern Italian lemons from Amalfi and Sicily are prized for this kind of dessert.
Ingredients you will need
The main ingredients are plain flour, icing sugar, cold butter, egg, egg yolk, lemon. Exact quantities are in the recipe card below.
How long it takes
Allow 3 hr 15 min in total: 30 min of preparation, 45 min of cooking and 2 hr of resting, chilling or soaking. The recipe serves 8.
Inspired by Massimo Bottura
One of Bottura’s best-known desserts is a deliberately broken lemon tart, created after a cook dropped one in the kitchen. This is a classic, unbroken Italian lemon tart for home cooks. Read our profile of Massimo Bottura.
This is our own home-kitchen version of a classic dish. It is not Massimo Bottura’s recipe and is not endorsed by them. For the chef’s own recipes, see their official books and restaurants.
Italian Lemon Tart (Crostata al Limone)
Ingredients
Method
- Rub the flour, icing sugar, cold butter and zest of 1 lemon together. Add the egg and yolk and bring into a dough. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
- Roll out and line a 23 cm tart tin. Chill for 20 minutes, then blind bake at 180°C for 15 minutes with beans and 10 minutes without.
- Whisk the lemon juice, zest, eggs and sugar in a pan over low heat until thick, about 8 minutes.
- Take off the heat and whisk in the butter until glossy.
- Pour into the tart case and bake at 150°C for 10–12 minutes until just set.
- Cool, then chill for 1 hour before slicing.