Pasticiotto Leccese

This is a very specific pastry for this region and not really found elsewhere in Italy. A short-crust pie dough, thick and crumbly, fashioned into an oval and filled with a wide variety of fillings. I chose the Crema di Amarena filling which is a very subtly sweet pastry cream (“crema pasticcera”) with a bitter cherry puree at its center (think Luxardo). I imagined it to be good but it was even better than I imagined, in my mind I didn’t really provide a temperature, it is served quite warm, the filling almost hot. The temperature really enhances its texture and flavor. ⁣