Crostata di Zucca Invernale e Rhum con Cioccolato Amaro
In the late summer and early autumn, in the interior of the island, the great harvests of pumpkin and squash are preserved by the farmwives in varied fashion. Often the flesh is cooked down to a marmalade and sparked with candied oranges, or poached chunks of it are set to rest in a sweet vinegared brine. Too, thick slices of poached flesh are often rolled around in a sugary syrup and left to dry. Of a most luscious flavor, this candied pumpkin is sometimes used with dark rum and a handful of broken, bittersweet chocolate, to make a tart like the one we were served in the village of Milo. I was dazzled by it. But when I heard of the perplexing process by which the tart’s author had candied the pumpkin (she began by saying that I should gather fifty to sixty pumpkins), I was slightly shaken. I found, though, that simply roasting the flesh of a pumpkin or squash and then bathing it in caramelized sugar gives a flavor similar and perhaps even richer and requires far less drama.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 6
Ingredients
The Tart Crust
The Filling
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Step 2
On a metal baking sheet, roast the squash until its flesh is tender and collapsing—about 1/2 hour. Remove the squash from the oven and permit it to cool until you can comfortably scrape the flesh from its shell. Set the flesh aside.
Step 3
Over a gentle flame, heat the sugar in a large sauté pan, stirring constantly, until it takes on a very dark, golden color. Add the squash and roll it around in the caramel. Because the squash will be colder than the caramel, the caramel will seize and harden, but after a moment or two over the gentle flame, it will melt. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and the rum, combining the components well. Turn out the squash mixture into a bowl to cool thoroughly.
Step 4
Meanwhile, butter a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and line it with the pastry, covering the pastry-lined pan with plastic wrap and placing it in the freezer for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Step 5
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coarsely chop the extra-bittersweet chocolate and combine it with the squash mixture. Spread the squash/chocolate mixture over the well-chilled, unbaked pastry and bake the tart for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake the tart for an additional 25 minutes or until the pastry is deeply golden.
Step 6
Permit the tart to cool a bit on a rack, then dust it with confectioners’ sugar and present it, very warm, with unsweetened, barely whipped cream or a bowlful of mascarpone, should you wish.
