Romeo and Juliet Pie

Today I created a pie based on the Brazilian dessert Romeu e Julieta.  That dessert is slices of guava pasta with a white cheese.  Portuguese settlers did not have quinces to make quince paste and substituted guava instead.  Quince paste was still used in other Latin American countries like Argentina, where it is used to make a pie called pastafrola.  In Italian, pastafrolla is a shortbread crust.  Instead of making a shortbread crust, I used a Tortafrolla di Verona, a giant shortbread cookie from Verona.  "The story has it that Tortafrolla was first made in Juliet's house and became a specialty from Verona, a city much loved by Shakespeare."  I also decided to use quince paste, instead of guava paste, since in Act IV, Scene 4 the Nurse says "They call for dates and quinces in the pastry."

Crust:
1 Tortafrolla di Verona
1 stick of melted butter

Cheese filling:
12 oz of Ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of brandy
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Quince topping:
15 oz of dulce de membrillo (quince paste)
1/4 cup of water

Directions:
Pulse the Tortafrolla in a food processor, like you would with graham crackers.  Add the melted butter.  Press into a tart pan, and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Blend the ricotta, heavy cream, and sugar.  Add the eggs and yolks one at a time.  Add the brandy, vanilla, and salt.  Pour into the crust.  Bake for 35-40 minutes at 300oF.  Allow to cool.

Break up the dulce de membrillo into a medium sauce pan.  Add the water.  Cook over medium high heat until the dulce de membrillo has completely broken down and the mixture has the consistency of a thick syrup.  Immediately pour over filling and smooth it out with an offset spatula.  Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least two hours.

The flavors that I wanted were all there, but the textures were all wrong.  The next time, I would do a shortbread crust instead of a cookie crust.  The cheese filling was also a little grainy.  It was not smooth like a ricotta cheesecake.  I think it would work better with marscapone cheese or cream cheese in the filling instead of ricotta.  Also, the dulce de membrillo really toughened up, it could be diluted with another 1/4 cup of water to make it more like a thin gel instead of a thick layer of fruit roll-up.  The recipe needs to be reworked, but the idea is definitely a winner.

Piece out!
Justin