Cruble Ricotta Cake

If you decide to make yourself a bowl of ricotta (or ricotta-like stuff, call it the way you want...), you'd better have an action plan ready in order to get the most out of it. And if by any chance these past two days some of you have been losing sleep trying to figure out what happened to my home-made batch, here's the answer.
The recipe is by Elena di Giovanni, and it's been in the Hit Parade of CI forum (the online forum of the Cucina Italiana Magazine, ed) for long time. I think it has circled around the blogosphere more than a thousand times, but if, for some reason, some of you don't know it yet, I suggest you immediately run in the kitchen and get down to work. I'm almost going back myself...


Crumble Cake
with Ricotta & Amaretti
for a round cake pan of 9" diameter

For the Dough
flour 300 gr.
butter, at room temperature 100 gr.
egg 1
sugar 100 gr.
baking powder 1 package (16 gr.)
vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
milk as needed

For the Filling
fresh ricotta 300 gr.
egg 1
sugar 90 gr.
amaretti about 20

For the filling, mix the ricotta with the egg and sugar, beat well until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. Crumble the amaretti and mix them with the filling. Cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to use.
For the dough, mix the flour, butter, egg and sugar until large crumbs form. Add baking powder and vanilla and, if necessary, a couple of tablespoons of milk, which will help to blend the mixture and to get large crumbs. Grease the pan with butter and dust it with flour (I've used 4 smaller pans instead), then cover the bottom with about half of the crumbs, leveling the layer with a slight pressure of your hands. Spread the ricotta mixture on top, leaving a free border of about half inch. Cover with the rest of the crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then sprinkle some confectioners' sugar on top before serving.