Lidias Rice And Zucchini Crostata Recipes

LIDIA'S RICE AND ZUCCHINI CROSTATA

Steps:

• The night before, place ricotta in a cheese cloth placed in a strainer hung over a bowl. Refrigerate and let drain overnight.
• The day of, mix shredded zucchini with raw rice in a large bowl and let sit for one hour at room temperature.
• In a food processor, place flour and salt and pulse a few times to mix.
• In a measuring cup, add ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil and 1/3 cup of cold water together. The remaining water will be added as needed but in my batch, I used all of the ½ cup of water.
• Run the food processor and add the oil and water mixture with machine running. Add the remaining water if needed to bring the dough together.
• Pour out onto a floured surface and knead for one minute.
• Shape into a rectangle, cover tightly with plastic and let sit at room temperature for one hour.
• After the hour has elapsed, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Rack should be at the very bottom of the oven with a pizza stone on the rack if possible.
• Add the drained ricotta, grated cheese, scallions, eggs, milk and salt to the zucchini and rice. Mix to combine.
• Flour the counter and roll the dough out so it is longer and wider than your 12X18 inch buttered pan. (The recipe as written yielded a very thin dough. It is however soft enough that it stays together so make sure it gets rolled larger than the pan. If I was to do this recipe over again, I probably would have increased the amount of dough by about 25%.)
• Roll the dough up on a floured rolling pin then unroll onto the prepared sheet pan, letting the excess hang over. Tuck the sides and corners in but do not cut off excess.
• Pour the ricotta batter onto the dough and spread to the edges.
• Fold the overhanging dough over the top of each edge, pleating the four corners.
• Place on top of the pizza stone and bake for 60-70 minutes or until slightly browned and a knife inserted into the center, comes out clean. If it doesn't brown, you may consider placing it under the broiler for a minute. We did with ours.
• Cool 30 minutes and cut into 20 pieces.