Stracciatella Tartlet with Confit Tomatoes and Anchovies | Tartelletta Brisée con Stracciatella, Pomodorini Confit e Acciughe del Cantabrico

Sep 30

11 min read

Tartelletta Brisée con Stracciatella, Pomodorini Confit e Acciughe del Cantabrico (Stracciatella Tartlet with Confit Tomatoes and Anchovies)

This tartlet is a finger food built from four elements kept strictly apart: a brisée shell baked until it snaps, cherry tomatoes slowly confit in oil, Puglian stracciatella still heavy with cream, and one Cantabrian anchovy fillet.

Almost every decision here defends the crisp pastry from the wet filling, and the seasoning from the salt of the anchovy.

Serves 8, one tartlet each. Prep: 30 minutes. Chill: 1 hour. Cook: 2 hours for the tomatoes, 30 minutes for the shells. Total: about 4 hours, mostly unattended.

The Story

Brisée is the plainest pastry in the French repertoire and the hardest to fake: flour, cold butter, a yolk, iced water and salt. The name comes from the verb briser, to break, and it describes what the cook does to the butter. It is broken into the flour in flakes, so that in the oven the flakes melt and leave a fine, brittle fracture instead of a soft, sandy crumb. Italian kitchens adopted it for savoury work, especially for small tarts served with an aperitivo, and across the northern regions a pasta brisée has lined tarts and vegetable pies for well over a century. It contains no sugar at all, and that matters more than it first seems, because it changes how the shell must be baked and how its doneness is read. It suits a cold, salty filling for that very reason.

Stracciatella belongs to Puglia, to Andria and the plain of the Murgia. Fresh cow milk curd is stretched in hot water, torn by hand into ragged strips, and bathed in cream. The name means little shreds. It began as a way of using the trimmings of stretched curd cheeses in the early twentieth century, when the dairies of Andria wrapped that creamy scrap inside a pouch of mozzarella and sold it as burrata. The scrap eventually escaped the pouch and became a product in its own right. Good stracciatella is loose, glossy and faintly sweet, and it smells of milk rather than of cream cheese. It is sold in tubs, in its own cream, and is meant to be eaten within a day or two.

The anchovy comes from the Bay of Biscay, where the Cantabrian coast from Santoña to Laredo works a spring season the fishermen call the costera. The fish are gutted, layered in salt inside barrels, and cured for a year or more before being filleted by hand and packed in olive oil. The result is meaty, rounded and almost sweet, a seasoning more than a fish. Putting it on Puglian stracciatella is a modern Italian idea, but it follows a very old logic: cured fish against fresh milk, salt against fat, exactly as anchovy has always met butter and fresh cheese along both coasts. Here one fillet is the only salt the diner is meant to taste, which is why the fish is used whole and never chopped into the cheese.

Ingredients

For the brisée shells

All purpose flour, 1 1/4 cups (150 g)
Cold unsalted butter, European style if possible, cut in 1/2 inch (1 cm) cubes, 1/2 cup (115 g)
Egg, 1 large, separated: yolk in the dough, white for sealing the shells
Ice water, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
All purpose flour for dusting the work surface, 1 tbsp (8 g)
Parchment paper and baking beans or rice, for blind baking

For the confit tomatoes

Ripe but firm cherry tomatoes, halved through the stem, 10 oz (285 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, mild and fruity, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp (2 g), plus a few for finishing
Fine sea salt, 1 small pinch, for the tomatoes only

For assembly

Stracciatella, very fresh, loose and glossy, well drained, 8 oz (225 g)
Cantabrian anchovy fillets in olive oil, whole and boneless, 8 fillets (40 g)

For finishing

Confit tomato oil, a few drops for the board
Reserved thyme leaves, a few pinches
Fresh lemon juice, a few drops, only if the finished tartlet needs brightness

Preparation

Confit the tomatoes

Heat the oven to 275°F (135°C). Lay the halved tomatoes cut side up in one snug layer on a small tray, spoon over the olive oil, scatter the thyme and add a small pinch of salt, just enough to start drawing out the first water. Bake for 2 hours, until the tomatoes have collapsed to half their height, the edges have wrinkled and the juices on the tray have thickened into a syrup. Keep the oven low: above 300°F (150°C) the sugars caramelise before the water has left. Cool them on the tray, then store them with their oil.

Rub in the butter and rest the dough

While the tomatoes bake, combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and rub them in until the largest pieces are the size of a lentil and the rest looks like coarse meal. Stop there, because visible flakes of butter are what make the layers. Beat the yolk with the ice water, add it all at once, and bring the dough together with a few folds of the hand, without kneading. Flatten it into a disc, wrap it and chill for at least 1 hour. Cover the egg white and keep it refrigerated.

Roll, line and chill the tins

Roll the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch (3 mm). Cut discs about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) wider than your eight tartlet tins and ease them in, pressing into the corners with a small ball of spare dough rather than a fingertip, so the pastry does not shrink back down the wall. Trim the edges, prick the bases with a fork and chill the lined tins for 20 minutes, or freeze them for 10.

Bake the shells blind with weights

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line each cold shell with a small square of parchment and fill it to the rim with baking beans or rice. Bake for 18 minutes, then lift out the parchment and weights and bake for 8 to 10 minutes more, until the base is dry, evenly pale and smells of browned butter. Do not wait for gold. The shell will not turn gold.

Seal the shells with egg white

Loosen the reserved egg white with a fork and brush a thin, even film over the inside of each hot shell, base and walls. Return the shells to the oven for 2 minutes so the white sets. Cool them completely on a rack, since warm pastry sweats from underneath and undoes the work.

Drain the stracciatella and dry the toppings

Set the stracciatella in a fine sieve over a bowl and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes without pressing. It gives up thin whey and keeps the thick cream that carries the flavour. Lift the tomatoes from their oil onto paper towel for a couple of minutes. Blot the anchovy fillets and check each one with a fingertip for stray pin bones. Do not rinse them.

Assemble to order

Spoon a generous mound of stracciatella into each cool shell, so the surface stays ragged. Set one or two tomato halves against the cheese, slightly off centre. Drape one anchovy fillet over the top, following the curve, and add a few thyme leaves. Add no salt at any point, because the anchovy has already seasoned everything beneath it. Serve within ten minutes of assembly.

Plating

Serve on a flat slate, a wooden board or a narrow rectangular dish, never on a curved plate, where small tartlets roll and tip. Space them well apart. Crowded finger food looks like a buffet, spaced finger food looks composed, and the gap lets a guest lift one without touching its neighbour.

Keep three layers legible: white cheese mounded as a collar, deep red tomato, and the silver and brown anchovy as the highest point. Brush a few drops of confit oil onto the board around the tartlets, never over them. Use the reserved thyme rather than basil, which fights the cure of the anchovy. Carry no more than eight at a time and go back for the rest, rather than letting a full tray stand under the lights of the pass.

Professional Technique

A brisée has no sugar, so it cannot be judged by colour. Without simple sugars there is no caramelisation, and the shell stays pale even when it is fully cooked. A cook who waits for gold will dry it out and turn it bitter. The pastry bakes at moderate heat, 350°F (175°C), for longer than a sweet shortcrust, and doneness is read from other signs. Smell first: a clear aroma of browned butter, nutty and warm, shows the fat has cooked through. Then touch: the base should pull slightly away from the tin, and when tapped with a fingernail it should sound dry and hollow rather than dull and soft. A shell that smells only of flour is underbaked, however pale it looks.

The blind bake with weights makes that even cooking possible. Raw butter pastry melts before its starch has set, so the walls slump and the base puffs. Baking beans or rice, filled to the rim, hold the walls upright and press the base flat while the butter melts and the starch sets. Give it 18 minutes with the weights, then 8 to 10 minutes without them, so the base dries directly in the oven heat.

Finally, the shell must be cold and dry when it is filled. A shell that is still warm holds steam, and that steam condenses inside the pastry as it cools. Any water left in the base is then drawn towards the wet cheese. Cool the shells completely on a rack, keep them uncovered and away from steam, and fill them only at the last moment.

Texture and Moisture Control

Three sources of moisture threaten one crisp shell: the whey in the stracciatella, the oil and syrup of the tomatoes, and the oil on the anchovy. Each one is controlled before assembly, and none of them is controlled by removing flavour. The goal is a dry surface, not a dry filling. The whey drains off in the sieve, the tomatoes are blotted and the anchovy is patted dry. The egg white film does the rest. Albumen sets at about 145°F (63°C), so on a hot shell it coagulates on contact and bridges every microscopic crack in the base.

The butter helps as well. At 1/2 cup (115 g) against 1 1/4 cups (150 g) of flour, the fat coats the flour particles and slows the movement of water into the starch, and a base baked until dry absorbs far less than one that is merely set.

Temperature completes the picture. Keep the stracciatella cold until the last minute so it holds its shape and does not weep, while the tomatoes and the shells sit at room temperature. Even with every precaution, a cold wet filling in a room temperature shell has a working life of about ten minutes before the base begins to yield.

Professional Mise en Place

Everything except the assembly is done ahead, so service is a single pass down the tray.

Equipment and tools

Eight 3 inch (7.5 cm) fluted tartlet tins, baking beans or rice, parchment
Small tray for the tomatoes, fine sieve and bowl for the stracciatella
Small offset spatula and a teaspoon for the mounds
Wire rack for cooling, paper towel for blotting, and a slate or board for service

Prepared ahead

Dough, wrapped and refrigerated, up to 1 day ahead
Confit tomatoes in their oil, refrigerated, up to 2 days ahead
Baked and sealed shells, in a sealed tin, up to 1 day ahead
Stracciatella draining in the refrigerator, from 30 minutes before service
Thyme leaves picked and kept in a small bowl, covered with a damp cloth

Service setup

Tomatoes at room temperature and blotted, anchovies blotted and checked for bones
Stracciatella cold in the sieve until the last minute
Shells lined up on a tray, board at room temperature, thyme within reach
One person assembling, one person carrying, so the tray never waits

Chef Tips

Buy the stracciatella the day you use it, from a dairy that makes it that morning. It should look loose and glossy and smell of milk, not stiff or sour. Taste one finished tartlet before committing the tray: if it needs anything, it needs a drop of lemon juice on the tomato, never salt. Make the tomatoes a day early, because their flavour deepens overnight, and keep the leftover oil for the board or for a vinaigrette. Bake two extra shells, since thin walls sometimes crack while lifting them from the tins, and use one spare to check doneness by sound. If the dough softens while you roll it, return it to the refrigerator for 15 minutes instead of adding more flour, since extra flour makes the shell tough. When the anchovies come from a large tin, choose fillets of even width so that every tartlet looks the same, and keep the thinner tail pieces for a vinaigrette or a sauce. Chill the plates or the board briefly if the kitchen is hot.

Common Mistakes

Waiting for the shell to turn golden. Without sugar it never does, and by the time it colours it is dry and bitter. Judge by the smell of browned butter and by a dry sound at the base.

Skipping the weights or filling them halfway. The walls slump and the base puffs. Fill the shell to the rim so the pastry is held up until it sets.

Filling a warm shell. Trapped steam turns to moisture in the pastry. Cool the shells completely on a rack first.

Salting every component. One Cantabrian anchovy already seasons the whole tartlet. Salt only the pastry for structure and the tomatoes with a pinch.

Pressing the stracciatella. Squeezing pushes out the cream along with the whey. Let it drain by gravity only, and use the whey elsewhere.

Assembling ahead of service. After ten minutes the base begins to soften. Build the tartlets in a single pass just before they leave the kitchen, and never stack them or cover the tray, which traps steam.

Wine Pairing

Franciacorta DOCG: Fine persistent bubbles and brisk acidity cut through the cream of the stracciatella and reset the palate after each anchovy. Its yeasty, toasted bread notes echo the browned butter of the brisée, and the dry finish stops the salt from lingering. Choose a brut, since any dosage would push against the sweet tomato.

Locorotondo DOC: A dry white from the same region as the stracciatella, crisp and light, with green almond and citrus notes. Its modest body meets a soft cheese without weight, and its gentle sapidity sits comfortably beside the cured fish. Serve it well chilled, at about 46°F (8°C).

Verdicchio di Matelica DOC: High acidity and a mineral, saline core refresh the fat of the cheese and the butter in the pastry. The faintly bitter almond finish runs alongside the anchovy, while the structure holds up against the sweet, concentrated tomato. It is the most savoury choice of the four whites here.

Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: Salty minerality and firm citrus acidity match the cure of the anchovy on equal terms. Its herbal note picks up the thyme on the tomato, and its clean, dry finish leaves the milk sweetness of the cheese in front. Serve it cold, as you would with any raw or cured fish.

Fiano di Avellino DOCG: A structured white with hazelnut and dried herb notes that pick up the browned butter of the pastry and the thyme. Its firm acidity cuts the cream, and its weight is enough to stand up to the anchovy without covering the delicate milk flavour. It ages well, so a bottle of two or three years gives more depth still.

Storage & Reheating

Never store the assembled tartlets, because the base softens within minutes. Keep the baked, sealed shells in an airtight tin at room temperature for 1 day. To refresh them, warm the shells on a tray at 300°F (150°C) for 5 minutes, then cool them completely before filling. The brisée dough keeps refrigerated for 2 days, or frozen for 1 month, and should thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.

Confit tomatoes keep in a sealed jar under their oil for 3 days refrigerated, or 1 month frozen, and should come back to room temperature before use. Stracciatella keeps 1 to 2 days in its cream and does not freeze well, because the strands turn grainy. Leftover anchovy fillets keep refrigerated for a week, covered in oil, in a small closed jar. Anything already assembled should be eaten, not saved.