The name derives from the Latin word crustāta, the feminine past participle of crustāre ("to encrust"), and ultimately from the noun crusta ("crust").^[6] The French term croustade derives from it, from which the English term custard derives.^[6] The word crostata appeared in the earliest Italian dictionaries, included in the 1612 dictionary Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (compiled from 1591 to 1608)^[7] by the Accademia della Crusca and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,^[8] and the 1617 dictionary Il memoriale della lingua italiana: ridotto in ordine d'alfabeto per commodità del lettore by Giacomo Pergamino, in which it was defined as a type of torta.^[9]

Traditionally, a crostata consisted of a base, usually three layers, of friable dough "flavoured with clarified fat and butter".^[10] Today, shortcrust pastry is used instead. It is differentiated from a torta by its filling: a crostata has an inconsistent chunky filling, whereas a torta has a consistent filling made of blended ingredients.^[10] There are "endless variations"^{[citation needed]} of both sweet and savoury crostata,^[4] the sweet ones usually being served as a dessert.

Sweet variations use fruit preserves as a filling, typically apricot, cherry, peach or nectarine, or berries.^{[citation needed]} The crostata can also be blind-baked and then filled with pastry cream (crema pasticciera) topped with pieces of fresh fruit; this is called crostata di frutta. In his 1570 cookbook Opera dell'arte del cucinare, Bartolomeo Scappi included a recipe for a crostata of plums and sour cherries,^[10] and others for quince, and pears. A modern version is crostata alla nutella, which has Nutella as the filling.^[11]

Ingredients for a savoury crostata may include meat, fish, or vegetables,^[10] which are pre-cooked.^[4] Opera dell'arte del cucinare included a recipe for a "crostata of crabmeat and shrimp", and also stated that to instead make a torta, the shrimp and crab should be crushed.^[10] A popular sweet variant, especially in central Italy, is crostata di ricotta, made with ricotta mixed with sugar and lemon zest, and which may additionally include cocoa or raisins.^[12][13][14]

Scappi included many recipes for crostata in Opera dell'arte del cucinare. For meat and seafood based crostata, there were recipes using pork jowls or prosciutto,^[15] crayfish, anchovies, or oysters. Other savoury crostata recipes included a crostata with creamy cheese referred to as a butirata,^[15] those with truffles or field mushrooms,^[16] one with artichoke or cardoon hearts,^[16] and one with "the viscera of any sort of turtle".^[17]

  Media related to Crostata at Wikimedia Commons

• Pastafrola – a version found in Greece, Egypt, and South America
• Linzer torte – an Austrian version