In Melbourne we are coming to the end of summer stone fruit so when I saw this Spiced Ricotta and Nectarine Tart in this month's Gourmet Traveller I knew I had to act fast and I am so glad I did. For those of you in the northern hemisphere who are slowly beginning to thaw I suggest you ear mark this one as it will not disappoint.

As per usual I tweaked this recipe to suit my taste. The recipe suggested that the nectarines be baked in brandy. That just didn't gel for me so I decided to bake them in Marsala instead. I often poach stone fruit in Marsala over the summer months so I always have a bottle handy. I was a little more generous with the cardamom, ginger and cinnamon too because if you're going to call this a 'spiced' ricotta tart then it makes sense to taste the spice.

I picked up a kilo of white nectarines at my local greengrocer so I decided to bake the lot on Saturday night. This made making the tart the next day a whole lot easier as all I had to do was make the pastry and sort the ricotta. It also meant that we were able to stuff ourselves on baked nectarines and vanilla bean ice cream on Saturday night.

Spiced Ricotta & White Nectarine Tart

Recipe source - Adapted from Gourmet Traveller - March 2009

I tweaked this one a bit to suit my taste so rather than bake the nectarines in brandy I decided to bake them in Marsala. I also doubled the amount of cardamom, ginger and cinnamon because after all it is a 'spiced' ricotta tart.
 

Ingredients

Baked Nectarines

3 white nectarines halved

1 tbsp muscovado sugar

20ml of Marsala
 

Shortcrust pastry

115g of unsalted butter

1/3 cup castor sugar

1 organic egg yolk

½ tsp vanilla extract

185g plain flour, sifted

 
Spiced Ricotta

400g fresh ricotta

1 tbsp of ground cardamom, cinnamon and ground ginger

1 organic egg

4 tbsp caster sugar

 
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

2. Combine nectarines, muscovado sugar and Marsala in a bowl and toss to coat. Place the nectarines cut side up on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper and roast for 15 minutes until soft and golden. When cool, cut the halved nectarines in half again so that you have 12 wedges and set aside.

3. Place flour, sugar and butter in the Magimix or food processor and process for 10-15 seconds or until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and continue to process until the pastry clings together and forms a ball. Remove pastry from the machine and knead it gently to form a smooth ball. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

4. Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin and roll pastry to a thickness of 2-3mm. Line 28cm diameter tart tin with pastry, trim the edges and then blind bake for 15 minutes until pale golden. Remove paper and weights and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

5. Meanwhile blend ricotta, spices, sugar and egg in food processor until smooth. Spoon into the tart case, arrange nectarines on top and scatter with a little extra muscovado sugar and bake for 20-30 minutes until just golden and firm to touch. Cool to room temperature before serving.