Two Parts Italy

It’s cherry (ciliegie in Italian) season, both in Italy and in the US. Big and sweet, they are wonderful to eat out of hand. But no spitting of the pits indoors, only in the backyard (that admonition is for my grandchildren).

This month I am in New Mexico visiting my family and the stores here are full of sweet cherries. I could not resist buying a big bag of them. Way too many for me to eat, I thought that they would be perfect as a dessert to take to an upcoming dinner party.

With that in mind, it was time to look for some recipes - perhaps a sweet cherry pie? A cobbler? Clafouti? Inspiration came as I remembered a recipe I had tucked away, an old favorite that I hadn’t made in a long time – a sweet cherry tart. I can’t remember the origins of the recipe; it is written on a note card in my recipe box without naming the source. I only remembered that it was wonderful. Not too sweet, with a buttery pastry shell and a soft, cinnamon scented filling.

The finished sweet cherry tart was a hit at the dinner party I attended

Simple ingredients for both the tart shell and the cherry filling make this an easy dessert

Recipe in hand, I dug out my old-fashioned cherry pitter and got to work.

My memory was correct - the sweet cherry tart made the perfect summer dessert, especially topped with some vanilla ice cream!

The ingredients are simple, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, sour cream, cinnamon and cherries. Here’s the recipe:

To prepare the tart shell:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Pre-baking keeps the pastry crust from getting soggy once filled

1 ½ cups flour

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons of sour cream

Mix all ingredients together, either by hand or in a food processor, until mixture can be formed into a ball.

Press with your fingers into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. (hint: you can use a small, smooth sided jar as a rolling pin to even out the bottom of the pastry once the dough is in the pan)

Poke the dough with the tines of a fork, refrigerate until chilled (overnight is ok too)

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

For the filling:

Distribute the cherries evenly to the edges of the tart shell

2 ½ cups fresh, pitted sweet cherries

2 large eggs

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons sour cream

4 teaspoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat the eggs, sugar, sour cream, flour and cinnamon to mix well. Add the pitted cherries

Pour into the pre-baked tart shell, using a fork to evenly distribute the cherries all the way to the edges of the tart pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Filling should be set and knife inserted near the edges should come out clean..

Serve warm or at room temperature. Feel free to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each slice!