Upside-Down Berry Crostada

Every year, about the time that you realize fall is definitely, inexorably turning into winter, I get this undeniable urge to bake. There is something almost luxurious about coming inside from a windy day, when the mercury pokes above freezing - but only while the sun is shining, to something hot and sweet, fresh from the oven.

 Usually the case with me, is that I *attempt* to bake, and many phone calls to my sister later, and picture messages of my failures, she has diagnosed my problem and I am off and running with a working recipe (usually one completely different than I started with). Truly, I really am that rubbish at baking. I hate measuring thing so precisely, and trying to make things cookie cutter perfect, I'm a free-form kind of girl! This is why this recipe is so perfect, everything about it is approximate, and works with whatever fruit and berries you have on hand. The original is from Giada De Laurentis' show "Everyday Italian" and can be found here. An excellent alternative to the berry version here is to make a peach crostada with 5-6 cups fresh peaches.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 Tbsp sugar, divided (2 + 2)
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1 Tbsp pieces
• 3 Tbsp ice water
• 10 oz frozen blueberries, thawed
• 20 oz frozen blackberries, thawed
• 10 oz frozen strawberries, thawed
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 8 oz marscapone cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 Tbsp honey

Prepare the crust 1 hour in advance. Combine flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, lemon zest and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until a coarse meal is formed. Add ice water t 1 Tbsp at a time, until dough comes together. Remove from food processor bowl, form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate ~1 hour.

Stir together the berries, lemon juice, 2 Tbsp sugar, and cornstarch. Place in approximately 10 inch baking dish (round or square).

Roll the crust out so that it will be ~2-4 inches larger than your baking dish. Place the crust over the berries and tuck the edges in so that it fits just inside the baking dish. Cut a slit in the center of the dough. Bake 50-60 minutes at 400F, until the crust is golden and the berries are bubbly.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving. While cooling prepare the marscapone whipped cream.

Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks from with an electric mixer. Add the marscapone and honey, continue to whip until nice peaks form.

Serve the crostada in bowls topped with the whipped marscapone.