When Ben and I traveled to Peru, we arrived in Cusco early to acclimate to the high elevation before embarking on our Machu Picchu trek. We walked very slowly around town, combatting our altitude sickness by drinking all the tea and eating every alfajor in sight. One café we ducked into offered a steaming beverage with fresh slices of lemon and grapefruit muddled with coca leaves and stalks of lemongrass. Years later, I haven’t stopped thinking about that zesty combination.
While I’ve traded coca leaves for pineapple here (the stimulant is illegal in the United States, after all), the tangy curd in this tart still retains all the best of the original brew’s refreshing, piquant qualities and is one that is sure to stick with you, too.
Please note that this recipe requires an overnight step before assembly!
1 fully baked Basic Tart Pastry Shell
GRAPEFRUIT LEMONGRASS CURD
3 stalks (8 ounces/227 grams) fresh lemongrass
2 cups (474 milliliters) fresh grapefruit juice, from about 3 large grapefruits
½ cup (118 milliliters) fresh lime juice, from about 5 limes
½ cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs plus 3 egg yolks
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
PREPARE A DAY AHEAD
1. Rinse the lemongrass stalks and peel away the first few tough layers. Roughly chop the remaining stalks into 1-inch pieces and use a mortar and pestle or the side of your chef’s knife to bruise the lemongrass.
2. Combine the crushed lemongrass, grapefruit juice, and lime juice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the juice to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low, and cook to reduce to 1 cup (237 milliliters) of liquid, about 25 minutes. Cool, cover, and steep the lemongrass in the grapefruit juice overnight in the refrigerator.
DAY OF
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
4. Strain the reduced liquid and discard the lemongrass. Combine the infused grapefruit juice, sugar, salt, eggs, and egg yolks in a 2-quart saucepan and whisk well. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture is warmed through. Add the butter gradually and stir until all the cubes have melted. Continue cooking until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spatula, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners of the saucepan. Remove from the heat and strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve.
5. Keep the baked tart shell in the tart pan and place it on a baking sheet. Pour the curd into the tart shell and smooth the surface.
6. Bake the tart for 5 to 10 minutes to just set the filling. The edges should be solid while the center retains the slightest of jiggles.
7. Cool completely before decorating.
PINEAPPLE MATCHSTICK DESIGN PROCESS
1 pineapple
Chef’s knife
1. Trim and peel the pineapple. Cut the fruit in half lengthwise, reserving one half for another use. Halve the pineapple lengthwise again and slice out the core. Cut the wedges into ¼-inch slices.
2. Cut the slices into matchsticks measuring approximately 1 × ¼ inch. Slight variations in size can bring a fun textural element to this design, though, so don’t stress about perfection.
3. Lay a ruler across the surface of the tart 1½ inches from the top, resting it on the edges of the tart pan. Place a horizontal row of vertical matchsticks, separated by ⅛ inch, using the tip of a paring knife to nudge the fruit pieces into place.
4. When the first row has been completed, slide the ruler down 1½ inches to create a straight line reference for row 2. Continue the same process of placing vertical matchsticks. Repeat row by row until the entire surface of the tart has been covered, trimming pineapple pieces to fit as needed.
5. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This tart is best consumed within 2 days.
SUGGESTED SUBSTITUTIONS
Crust alternative: Coconut Pecan Crust
Topping alternatives: Mango, papaya, kiwi, dragon fruit. If you have an assortment of tropical fruit scraps from other designs, this is a particularly good one in which to repurpose them!
NOTE
Put the extra pineapple to fruitful use, either fresh or frozen in 1-inch chunks, in pies like Squiggle Room or Caught Off Shard.