Italian Lemon Ricotta Pie
For a delicious sweet Easter dessert, you'll love this Italian ricotta pie! Baked in a tart shell, flavored with lemon, creamy and rich, and easy to make.Perfect for the holidays.
Servings 10
Calories 275kcal
Ingredients
Pate Sucree
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp superfine sugar
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
- 1 egg yolk
- 3-4 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Ricotta Pie
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta, drained and at room temperature
- 3 oz mascarpone, room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1 large egg + 1 yolk, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp honey
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Pate Sucree
- Make the Dough: Add flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor. Pulse once or twice to mix them. Add the butter. Pulse for 5-6 one second pulses, so that the butter is cut up without large chunks. Add the egg yolk, heavy cream, and vanilla. Process in 2-3 10 second pulses.
- Watch for the dough to ball up and come together and stop once it has. If it still looks dry, add one more tablespoon of cream and pulse a few times to mix it in.
- Chill the Dough: Once the dough has begun to come together, transfer the dough to a bowl and use your hands to shape it into a disc.
- Cover the disc with plastic wrap and let chill for 1-2 hours, or up to 3 days. If chilling more than 1 hour, let the dough warm up and become pliable before rolling. This may take up to 30 minutes.
- Roll the Dough: Take out a 9 inch tart pan. Before rolling out the dough, butter a the pan.
- Roll out the dough on a floured board until it is large enough to fit the pan. Once the dough is pressed into the pan, use the rolling pin over the top the tart pan to neatly cut the edges.
- Press holes into the dough all over the surface with a fork. Freeze the dough in the pan for 30 minutes.
- Heat oven to 325F.
- Blind Bake the Crust: Line the frozen dough with foil and fill with pie weights.
- Bake the crust for 30 minutes, or until light brown. Remove the baked crust from the oven, take off the pie weights and let cool while you make the filling.
Ricotta Pie
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine the ricotta, mascarpone, sugar, and salt. If you are using a standing mixer use the flat beater. Beat on low until just combined.
- Add the egg and egg yolk. Mix in on low for a few seconds. Then scrape the sides and mix for 30 seconds.
- Add vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, and cinnamon. Mix on low until blended.
- Scrape filling into baked crust and smooth out the top.
- Bake tart for 24-28 minutes, or until the edges and set and a little puffed while the center is still jiggly.
- Move to a rack and let to room temperature. Then refrigerate and cool for at least 3 hours up to 1 day.
Notes
- Superfine Sugar: To make superfine sugar from granulated sugar, put the sugar in the blender and puree for about 30 seconds.
- Tart Pan: You will need a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom for the recipe.
- Timing: While you can make the whole recipe in one day, it is much easier to spread it out over a few days. Make the tart dough on day one and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Then bake the crust and filling on day two. And let it fully chill and rest in the fridge overnight before enjoying on day three.
- Internal Temperature: As extra insurance against overcooking, you can check the temperature of the pie with an instant read thermometer. You want the filling to reach 150F.
- Draining the Ricotta: Make sure to drain the ricotta as it warms up to room temperature. You can drain it longer if you wish, but I find an hour is usually enough.
- Mixing the Filling: Use low speed when mixing and only mix as much as needed to combine the ingredients. This is a type of cheesecake so you don't want to add too much air to the filling.
- For Even Sides: Once you cut off the edges of the pastry press them up so they are a little bit taller than the tart pan sides. This will counteract shrinkage in baking.
Nutrition
Calories: 275kcal