home-made ricotta and peach tart

Directions

1. Make crust. Put flour on a working surface and make a well in the center. Add all remaining ingredients and knead until combined being careful not to overwork dough. When combined make a ball, lightly flour it, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 40 minutes.
2. Make ricotta. Pour milk and salt in a non-reactive pot and heat on medium heat until it reaches 190F (or until your finger cannot stay in there comfortably more than 2 seconds- another sign is when milk starts bubbling in the sides). Remove from heat, add lemon juice, stir once, and let it rest for about 5 minutes w/out moving it. You'll see curds separating in the liquid. Drain in a strainer covered with 3-4 layers of cheese cloth (or kitchen paper as I did). Let drain for about 1 hour. Remove from strainer, put on a dish and keep in the fridge cover with plastic wrap.
3. Roll dough. Dust with flour the working surface and roll the dough into a 12-13" round. If dough crumbles you can re-work it again a little or roll it with your fingers directly in the greased pan. This crust is great so you can easily patch it up if it breaks. Make holes all over using a fork.
4. Bake the crust. Heat oven to 300F. Cut a parchment paper to round shape for it to cover the bottom of the pan. Place it on top of the dough and cover evenly with baking weights (or dry beans). Bake until lightly brown (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven, remove parchment paper and weights, and let cool throughly on a rack.
5. Compose tart. When ricotta and crust are both cool, rinse peaches, pat them to dry and slice them long wise in wedges. In a mixing bowl toss ricotta with maple sirup (you might need to add 1 or 2 tablespoons milk) to obtain a soft sweet spread. Spread it on the crust. Arrange peaches wedges. Decorate with chopped mint leaves.