Torta di...whatever berries tickle your fancy......

This is a super easy, aesthetically pleasing, summer tart from Jamie Olivers Jamie's Italy book...you'll find it under Torta di More in his book...More are blackberries in Italian. You can use whatever berries you like, I like covering it with juicy blueberries because you don't get the little seeds that are in blackberries. Thankfully there were red currants from last summer in my parents freezer as I only had a handful of blueberries -so I did a mix for this one. Best to use fresh berries though as they're not as 'wet'. So how to do this tart....

First make the pastry case ...use the following or any shortcrust pastry recipe you know-

take 125g butter
cream with 100g icing sugar, pinch of salt & zest of half lemon or orange
rub into 255g plain flour
when it becomes like breadcrumbs add 2 eggs yolks & 2 tbs cold milk or water
start with a fork then quickly use your hands to bring it together

when you've formed a ball of pastry put it into a self seal bag & let it rest in the fridge for 60 mins -at least. You can do this the day before if you're having a dinner party & you want to save time.
some advice when making pastry for pastry novices (myself included!) keep things as cold as possible eg. you can have the flour in a bowl in the fridge, the egg yolks in the fridge etc...handle as little as possible -within reason!
so when you're ready to bake the case roll out the dough to fit a greased 28cm loose-bottomed tart tin turn on the oven to 180'C/350'F/gas 4
let the pastry come out well over the edges as it will shrink ...like mine did! Prick all over to release air bubbles -bake for 12 mins
then brush with egg to give a golden colour & to seal it bake for 2 more mins

When the case is baking you can start to prepare the filling :-)

take 2 pots of mascarpone cheese (500g)
100ml single cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
3 tbsp limoncello or grappa or vin santo
seeds of one vanilla pod
put all of the above into a bowl & mix
when the case has completely cooled gently fill with the mixture & cover with berries
take 2 tbsp apricot jam with 2 tbsp water and heat gently into a syrup using a brush glaze the tart this gives a sort of patisserie feel...very posh!
serve in slices with tea or a small glass of any of the alcoholic beverages mentioned above