If you crave the juicy, jammy essence of a fruit tart but can only muster languid summer energy to make it, let me introduce you to the crostata.

I met my first crostata through my friend Elizabeth Minchilli. An American food writer living in Rome, she’s made her way through dozens of crostata variations over the years, adopting the best bits from each one, then mixing them together to create her own spin. Her recipe, published in her new book, “The Italian Table,” (Rizzoli, 2019), has a thick, buttery shortbread crust flecked with whole-wheat flour and grated lemon zest, and a glistening, not-too-sweet cherry jam filling. It’s the stuff of my sugar-dusted dreams — and the reason I never offer to bring dessert when going to Elizabeth’s.