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Pies and Tarts
Torta di Pere e Mandorle, Pear and Almond Tart
Tarta di Pere e Mandorle (Pear and Almond Tart)
Originated from: Northern Italy
Occasion: Special times
Contributed by: Mary Melfi

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Ingredients

For the pastry dough

2 1/4 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (cold) butter, cubed
3/4 cup icing sugar
3 egg yolks


For the filling

5 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered
1 1/4 cups (melted) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups blanched (OR lightly roasted) ground almonds
3 eggs



Icing sugar for dusting (optional)




Directions

For the Pastry Dough



Mix the flour and salt together.

Using a food processor mix the butter with the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs (One can also use a fork or a knife to mix the flour with the butter, but an electric food processor makes it much easier!).

Cover the bowl that contains the flour and butter mixture with plastic wrap, and chill for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.

Press the pastry mixture into a fluted container [A fluted flan tin would be best]and then press it evenly on the sides and base (One can use the bottom of a glass to press it down and smoothen it out).

Bake the pastry crust for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove and cool.



For the Pastry Filling



Peel, core and cut the pears.

Place the pears on the cooled pastry crust.

Cream the sugar and melted butter.

Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and sugar mixture and mix well.

Add the ground almonds to the creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture. Mix well.

Pour the mixture over the pears that are lined on the pastry tart.

Bake for about 40 minutes in a 300 F degree oven.

Cool.

Dust with icing sugar before serving (optional).














Notes

This is a very popular tart recipe that can be found on numerous websites. The recipes on the websites are almost identical to each other. All of the recipes recommend using icing sugar to make the crust rather than conventional sugar which is a bit unusual, but so it is. The recipes also recommend that one uses a fluted flan tin (It has to be rather largish so it can contain the filling which is substantial enough). I myself didn't have a fluted flan tin so I used what I had (That explains the picture!). In any case, it's hard to say where the original recipe comes from, possibly this is a traditional recipe that was created in one of the Northern areas of Italy (The use of butter is a fair indication of this). Some food historians might suggest that this type of tart is basically a French recipe that Italians copied or adapted. Frankly, this recipe is rather difficult to do. The crust burns easily and the custard doesn't cook as evenly as it should (Mine didn't). However, the pear and almond combination makes for a very tasty tart. Somewhat magical. I suppose this is the reason why this particular recipe is so popular. There are other hundreds of pear tart recipes but those that don't include almonds are second rate (Well, that's my opinion).... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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