First thing first, let’s make the shortcrust pastry. Mix the wheat flour with the grated Parmesan cheese and a pinch a salt. Add the diced butter and rub all the ingredients with your fingertips as to make soft crumbles, just as grated Parmesan cheese.

Beat the egg yolks in a bowl with two tablespoons of cold water, then add it to the crumbles and keep rubbing the ingredients with your fingertips until you have a nice and smooth ball of dough. If you have rubbed throughly the butter and the flour it will take only a few minutes and you won’t overheat the pastry, which will eventually be crumbly and light. Flatten the dough ball with your hands, wrap it in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge.

Now pour the milk in a large thick-bottomed pot and bring it to the simmer with a pinch of salt. When it starts simmering, add the pudding rice and let it cook completely (it will depend on the kind of rice you chose: it must be throughly cooked, soft and sticky). Mine took about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Let it cool down completely.

When the rice is cold, stir in 2 egg yolks, diced smoked bacon and chopped smoked scamorza cheese. Whip the egg whites (2 + 2 from the pastry shell) and fold them gently into the rice pudding.

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Roll the pastry with a rolling pin on a floured surface in a 5 mm thick sheet and line 16 muffin moulds. The fastest way to make it and have regular and nice pastry shells is to cut out some pastry discs with a glass as big as the bottom of the muffin mould and press them gently in. Then cut with a knife some pastry strips to line the sides of the muffin mould. Press the pastry lightly with your fingers to seal the bottom with the side stripes.

Spoon the rice pudding into the pastry shells and bake for about 40 minutes (25 minutes will be enough in a fan oven) until the rice tartlets will be golden brown on the edges.

Serve them warm or cold during a bruch or a picnic.