Crostata is a kind of an Italian pie, either open-faced or topped with a lattice crust, that is filled with fruit, jam, ricotta cheese, or other ingredients. The fruit based filling may be prepared with a variety of fruits namely cherries, apricots, peaches and berries. The word crostata is Italian for tart. The name derives from the Latin word crust?ta, the feminine past participle of crust?re (to encrust), and ultimately from the noun crusta (crust). Stories abound as to the origin of the dessert, including one that it was invented in a Neapolitan convent. But the best story about pastiera involves Partenope, a mermaid who lived in the gulf of Naples. She so enchanted the people of the region when she would emerge with her melodic love call, that they thanked her with their most precious gifts: wheat berries, a symbol of the earth's fertility, ricotta cheese, a gift from the shepherds, eggs, a symbol of new life, candied fruit and orange flower water to suggest the fragrance of springtime, spices to represent people in far away lands, and sugar to call to mind the sweetness of Partenope's call. The mermaid was so happy with these gifts, she decided to mix them all together and thus was born the first crostata.