Ramsay is such a historic neighbourhood, and rhubarb is found in so many gardens here. So when I was thinking of a recipe for Ramsay, this pie came to mind. My dad says it is “the best pie he has ever tasted!”

Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Roll pastry dough on a dry surface lightly dusted with a combination of flour and sugar. Transfer it to a pie plate, letting the edges hang over. Put the rhubarb and strawberries in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, stir together the sugars and cornstarch, add to the fruit and toss gently to combine. Mound into the piecrust. To make the crumble combine the flour, brown sugar and butter in a small bowl and mix with a fork or your fingers until well combined and crumbly. Sprinkle over the fruit, squeezing it as you go to create larger lumps of crumble. Bake the pie (on a cookie sheet if you are worried about drips) for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for another hour, until the pastry is golden and juices are bubbly and run clear. If the crust is browning too quickly, cover the pie loosely with foil. Eat warm, with vanilla ice cream.

“Never-fail” Pastry

This will give you enough pastry to line a 9” pie plate; double it to make enough for two pies or a double crust. Some pie bakers swear by a teaspoon of vinegar added to their water to discourage the formation of gluten and make a tender crust, but it's not necessary. Using all shortening instead of a combination of shortening and butter is OK too.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and shortening and use a fork, pastry blender, wire whisk or the “pulse” motion of the food processor to blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with lumps of fat no bigger than a pea.

Drizzle the minimum amount of water over the mixture and stir until the dough comes together, adding a little more a bit at a time if you need it. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least half an hour. If you are making a double crust pie, divide the dough in half, making one half slightly larger than the other. (Your pastry can be prepared up to this point and frozen for up to 4 months; let it thaw on the countertop when you need to use it.)