This recipe has always made me think of the ancient Romans, given the presence of spelt and barley. It’s a very good and not very sweet tart.

Plum, barley, and spelt tart

  • Preparation time: 120 minutes
  • Ingredients for 8 servings
  • Difficulty: Average difficult recipe

  • Ingredients
  • For the soft pastry:
  • 300 grams or 2 cups of flour
  • 100 grams or 4 oz of icing sugar
  • 100 grams or 4 oz of butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 8 g or 1 tbs of chemical yeast
  • For the stuffing:
  • 75 grams or 3 oz of spelt
  • 75 grams or 3 oz of barley
  • 100 grams or 1 cup of pitted dried plums
  • 2 eggs
  • 50 grams or 2 tbs of honey
  • 200 grams or 7 oz of ricotta cheese
  • 2 tablespoons of flour
  • 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  1. Instructions
  2. In a bowl, whisk the butter with the icing sugar. Add the eggs and then the flour, the sifted yeast, and the salt. Mix quickly. Roll the mixture into a ball and cover it with cellophane. Put it to rest in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
  3. Soak the barley in cold water for at least an hour; do the same for the spelt in a separate bowl.
  4. In two separate saucepans with water, cook the barley and spelt. The barley must be cooked for at least thirty minutes while the spelt for at least forty minutes. Drain and allow to cool.
  5. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
  6. Dice the plums.
  7. Whip the eggs with the honey in a bowl; add the orange zest, ricotta, sifted flour, plums, jam, barley, and spelt.
  8. Roll out half of the dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 4 mm. Spread the other half of the dough between two sheets of baking paper, always of the same thickness.
  9. Leave them in the refrigerator for about ten minutes to make them cold again.
  10. In a buttered and floured high cake pan, place a disc of very cold short crust pastry. Prick the base with a fork.
  11. Spread on top of the pastry the stuffing and then put the second part of the pastry as a lid or, as in the photo, decorate with the strips.
  12. Bake in the oven for about forty-five minutes.
  13. It tastes better the next day.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • The flour for the pastry should be low in protein, which will ensure that the gluten mesh does not develop. The dough must be worked little for this same reason.
  • Barley and spelt can also be bought peeled, which will make the cooking times faster.
  •  The timing of cooking in the oven is indicative because each oven cooks differently. The pastry should not darken too much.

 At Villa Glori when I was young