Summer is the season of fresh, bountiful produce and finding creative ways to celebrate and enjoy the warm weather. I suggest using the crostata or galette as a vehicle to make use of your fruits and vegetables. This can help reduce waste, make room in the fridge, and whip together a quick meal if you have the pastry ready to go. You can apply this to both sweet and savoury - check out some galette recipes on the website, including Tomato, Thyme and Cheese, Pumpkin, Caramelized Onion, Blackberry, Mint and Ricotta, Cheesy Mushroom Galette with Ricotta and Gruyere, and Asparagus, Snap Pea, and Blue Cheese Galette.

In case you were wondering, “crostata” is essentially the Italian version of a (French) galette, not much of a difference, if any! 

I decided to use three in-season fruits/vegetables. Namely, strawberries, peaches and rhubarb! They are a great balance of tartness and sweetness. The lemon, passion fruit, cinnamon, and other spices in the poaching liquid for this recipe will infuse complementary flavours into your filling. You can adjust the sugar depending on your sweetness tolerance; as well as the layering of the filling - you may want to add a few extra pieces on top of each other. This is the number one reasons why I love crostatas, these free form, open face pies are super customizable.

Ingredients

1 large peach, sliced into segments

1 large rhubarb stalk, cut lengthwise then into diagonal diamond-like shapes

1/3 cup strawberries, sliced in half, tops removed

4 cups passionfruit cocktail or fruit nectar (enough to cover the

2 lemon slices

3-4 tablespoons mirin

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

2 cinnamon sticks

2 anise stars

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1/3 cup cane sugar

2 tablespoons fresh ginger

1 tablespoon sliced almonds

1 pie crust of your making/choice

Egg wash (1 egg + cream)

Turbinado sugar

Ice cream

Instructions

Start by simmering the poaching liquid in a pot deep enough to submerge the fruits/vegetables. Add the passion fruit cocktail, ginger, lemon slices, zest, vanilla extract, almond extract, balsamic, cinnamon and anise on low heat.

Add the sugars and mirin. Once the sugar dissolves, add the fruits and heat for about five minutes. Don't overcook! Remove from the pot, eat and strain — keep the liquid. You can cook it down with butter and make a drizzling sauce.

Arrange the rhubarb, peaches and strawberries in the center of the pie crust, leaving the outside rim of at least 1-2 inches. Fold them over, then brush with egg wash. Sprinkle some almonds and sugar, then bake at 400F for or until the crust is golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream and eat immediately.