CROSTATA SLICE

This is an old recipe , but the end result is delicious. Ingredients.......for the pastry, 1 and 1/2 cups of s.r flour, 3 tbs of butter/ marg, 1/4 cup of castor sugar, 3 tbs of lemon juice, 3 medium sized cooking apples,(peeled,cored and sliced), an extra tbs of butter/ marg, 1/2 cup of raisins, 1 egg lightly beaten to glaze. Ingredients for the filling......500gm of smooth ricotta, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1/2 cup of castor sugar, 2 tbs of plain flour, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 dsp of grated lemon rind. Preheat your oven to 180 deg C. Spray and line with baking paper a 23cm square baking pan. Rub the butter/ marg into the flour with your fingers. Add the castor sugar and mix to a stiff dough with the lemon juice. Turn out onto a lightly floured bench and knead lightly. Roll the pastry out to a 3mm thickness and line the base of the preapared pan. Reserve the pastry scraps. Melt the 1 tbs of butter/ marg in a pan and add the sliced apples and saute for 2 minutes. Arrange the sauteed apples over the pastry base. Sprinkle over 1/2 of the raisins. Now in a separate bowl cream together 500gm of smooth ricotta cheese with 2 lightly beaten egg, 1/2 cup of castor sugar, 2 tbs of plain flour, 1/2 cup of milk and 1 dsp of grated lemon rind. Now spoon the combined and creamy filling mixture over the pastry base and then sprinkle over the remaining raisins. Roll out the reserved pastry to 3mm thickness and slice into 1 cm wide strips,and arrange them in a lattice pattern over the filling. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 houror until firm in the centre. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan, chill well before before removing from the pan and slicing into 8 portions. Serve as a cake or dessert with thickened cream.