Torta di Limone from Our Italy Cooking Vacations

Instructions

1. Sift flour onto a flat surface and make a large well in the center. Place salt, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla in the well and mix these center ingredients with your fingertips until sugar dissolves.
2. Pound butter with your fist or a rolling pin to soften. Add butter to well and quickly work with your fingertips until partly mixed.
3. Gradually work in flour to make coarse crumbs, scraping work surface with a spatula. When the dough comes together in a ball, lightly flour work surface and blend dough by pushing it away with the heel of your hand and gathering it up with either a scraper or spatula.
4. When it is ready, the dough should be smooth and pliable and should peel easily from work surface.
5. Press into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. To prepare the filling, beat together the butter and sugar in mixing bowl.
7. Add the eggs, two at a time, but do not overwork. Add the lemon juice and zest.
8. Pour into a tart pan lined with the pastry crust and sprinkled with almonds.
9. Bake for 40 minutes at 320° F.