Summer and heat are two elements that go against the desire to cook. Yes, we know, turning on the oven isn’t exactly optimal for combating high temperatures… but what if the cake to be prepared is worth the effort? Ricotta and strawberry cake certainly is.

So here is a recipe for a cake that is tasty and, at the same time, fresh to the palate. You can also prepare it using other types of fruit and one of my favourite alternatives is replacing strawberries with pitted cherries: just amazing!

Let us begin!

Ricotta and strawberry cake

33.73g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for the shortbread

• 220g wholemeal rice flour*
• 140g butter or Zero Butter*
• 130g fine corn flour*
• 100g almonds, peeled
• 75g sugar
• 75g icing sugar*
• 2 eggs
• 10g sprouted buckwheat flour* (optional)
• 8g baking powder*
• a bit of vanilla from the pod
• 1 pinch of salt
• rice flour* for rolling out the shortcrust pastry

Ingredients for the filling

• 700g ricotta
• 240g strawberries
• 80g sugar
• 50g agave syrup*
• 2 egg yolks
• bitter cocoa for decoration to taste

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

1. Grind the almonds in a food processor to obtain a flour; add all the other short pastry ingredients and mix them to obtain a soft, smooth dough. Cover with cling film and put in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
3. Wash and cut the strawberries. In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the sugar so that the mixture is even; add the agave syrup, the egg yolks and, finally, the chopped strawberries.
4. Roll out the shortcrust pastry on a sheet of parchment paper and put it in a 24cm diameter hinged cake tin. Pour the ricotta mixture on the base, then cover the filling with a second disc of shortcrust pastry.
   Bake in a static oven preheated to 180°C for about 35 minutes. Let cool and dust with cocoa powder to taste.

5. This shortcrust pastry is very soft to work with, so use a pinch of rice flour to help you roll it out.
6. As for the filling, we can replace the strawberries with other seasonal fruit, e.g. cherries or peaches: the cake will be just as tasty!

Version with gluten of Ricotta and strawberry cake 

The recipe is naturally gluten-free. You can, however, replace the shortcrust pastry with any other pastry you like.