Strawberry Mascarpone Tart

Strawberries are in season now in California (even in my little garden) and the markets are filled with them. One of my favorite desserts on this site is a mascarpone mousse with strawberries in a balsamic syrup.

The combination of balsamic vinegar and sweetened strawberries is one of those heaven-made matches that you simply must try if you haven’t already. (Sprinkle a little good quality, aged balsamic over some sugar macerated strawberries and you’ll see what I mean.)

Combine that with a sweetened mascarpone base, and it’s just, well, really really good. Like eat the whole batch and forget about dinner good.

This week I experimented with putting these ingredients to work in a strawberry tart, happily for the family (dad had a box of strawberry jello out on the kitchen counter to prepare and when I told him I was making a strawberry tart, he said, “well, if you must,” smiled, and put the box away.)

I made a tart crust using my standard pâte brisée recipe in a tart pan and also experimented with some frozen puff pastry.

Both work fine, I loved the taste and flakey texture of the puff pastry though I had a bit of trouble rolling it out to a size large enough to hold a comparable amount of filling and strawberries as the tart pan.

My advice is to just use a crust you are most comfortable with. You’ll need to bake the crust first, as this tart is a no-bake tart. I experimented with mascarpone and ricotta combinations, my preference is straight mascarpone for the tart, but experiment and see what you like.

Strawberry Mascarpone Tart Recipe

You can bake the tart shell a day ahead of time, keep at room temperature (do not chill). Fill the shell with filling and strawberries just before serving.

Ingredients

Tart Shell

• 1 recipe pie dough (see Pâte Brisée recipe, increase sugar to 1 1/2 teaspoons)

OR

• 1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
• 1 egg, whisked

Filling and Glaze

• 2 lbs strawberries, stemmed and quartered
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp orange zest, divided
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 12 ounces mascarpone cheese (can also use 8 ounces mascarpone mixed in with 4 ounces of ricotta or 4 ounces of whipped cream)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (substitute a teaspoon of lemon juice if you don't have balsamic)

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