ISO: Spinach Pine Nut Pie --for Dessert

[maggiethecat]

For research for a piece I'm writing, and for my father-in-law whose mother's (lost) recipe it was, I'm wondering if someone one knows about this dessert confection. My FIL says it was definitely a dessert treat, not some kind of quiche-like tart. It had a double crust and was heavy on the spinach. It was sublime, I'm told.

[Pontormo]

Maggie: This is just the first thing that came up on a google search that wasn't an antipasto with anchovies: Crostata di Spinaci. ETA: I just bothered to read through the recipe to discover it ISN'T a dessert--there are only 3 spoonfuls of sugar in the filling (amaretto cookies are found in a number of savory dishes such as meatballs and stuffed pasta) and none in a crust made with margarine.

I searched using the words "crostata" (a kind of double-crust or lattice-topped pie, unless made with jam, often with ingredients that aren't too sweet) and "spinaci" and "dolci" (desserts or pastries & other sweets). " Zucchero" is sugar and "rape" is a kind of green that is often purchased pre-cooked (boiled) in tight balls in some places in Italy and then sauteed or chopped up by home cooks for a variety of purposes. Sometimes interchangeable for spinach, especially here in US. Also try "bietole" (chard).

If googling your words in English results in nothing, you might try using some of these words instead and we'll help you with translations.

I'm sure there is someone here with first-hand knowledge who could provide greater service. Meanwhile, though, it would help to know where your FIL's mother lived or learned how to cook.

There's a Sicilian crostata from Valverde copied by Mimmetta Lo Monte from a nun's notes that includes romaine lettuce and pistachios. Spinach appears in a number of torte (torta, singular, either a cake or pie, depending) including one for Easter in Genoa (torta pasqualina), but I believe this is savory, with boiled eggs inside.

Edited July 24, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

P.S. Knew this sounded vaguely familiar! Patricia Wells has a recipe for a tourte aux blettes, or dessert made with chard and raisins in her *Bistro Cooking* book. Pastry has no sugar and uses olive oil instead of butter. From Nice, so maybe in Liguria you'd find counterparts. Try Colman Andrews, book on the cooking of the Riviera.

[Franci]

I searched using the words "crostata" (a kind of double-crust or lattice-topped pie, unless made with jam, often with ingredients that aren't too sweet) and "spinaci" and "dolci" (desserts or pastries & other sweets).  " Zucchero" is sugar and "rape" is a kind of green that is often purchased pre-cooked (boiled) in tight balls in some places in Italy and then sauteed or chopped up by home cooks for a variety of purposes.  Sometimes interchangeable for spinach, especially here in US. Also try "bietole" (chard).

Pontorno, I don't understand what are you saying, rape sold in balls? That would be redbeets and are not interchangeble with spinach

[Franci]

For research for a piece I'm writing, and for my father-in-law whose mother's (lost) recipe it was, I'm wondering if someone one knows about this dessert confection.  My FIL says it was definitely a dessert treat, not some kind of quiche-like tart. It had a double crust and was heavy on the spinach. It was sublime, I'm told.

←

I am pretty sure you are looking for the Torta verde della Lucchesia, typical from Lucchesia and Lunigiana, also known as Torta d'Erbi (yes, erbi not erbe).

The recipe I have saved in my files has zucchini and spinach .

Also in Viareggio is typical a sweet cake with zucchini that is called scarpaccia

Edited July 24, 2006 by Franci (log)

[Pontormo]

Pontorno, I don't understand what are you saying, rape sold in balls?  That would be redbeets and are not interchangeble with spinach

←

Cime di rape. In Florence, I knew a graduate student/teacher who lived very modestly. He kept an enormous sack of ceci in his closet and bought pre-cooked beet greens all the time and that was dinner with bread unless he went out. (He married someone who cooks very well, so his repertoire has expanded.)

[maggiethecat]

For research for a piece I'm writing, and for my father-in-law whose mother's (lost) recipe it was, I'm wondering if someone one knows about this dessert confection.  My FIL says it was definitely a dessert treat, not some kind of quiche-like tart. It had a double crust and was heavy on the spinach. It was sublime, I'm told.

←

I am pretty sure you are looking for the Torta verde della Lucchesia, typical from Lucchesia and Lunigiana, also known as Torta d'Erbi (yes, erbi not erbe).

The recipe I have saved in my files has zucchini and spinach .

Also in Viareggio is typical a sweet cake with zucchini that is called scarpaccia

←

As it happens my Nonna-in-law married a Lucchese, so this makes sense.

[Pontormo]

While in the cookbook section of the library this evening, I consulted a few volumes and thought I'd pass on the following information:

DINELLI, Deborah

A Taste of Lucca. Hosting a Northern Italian Dinner Party.

Sacramento, Tzedakah Publications: 1994

-Scarpaccia, Viareggio's zucchini cake is basically the same as others you'll find on the internet: flat, unadorned. No pastry.

-Torta coi becchi: this responds more to Franci's suggestions, a holiday treat made with chard, parsely, panettone or ladyfingers, raisins & pine nuts with milk, sugar, eggs & sweet cordials. The panettone or ladyfingers are soaked in milk and added to a rather dense filling (i.e. not the liquid consistency of a quiche's custard before it bakes). There is not a lid in this version or others I've seen.

CASELLA, Cesare & Eileen Daspin

Diary of a Tuscan Chef

-Torta di Fernanda, p. 193, Lucchese. Similar to Dinelli's version, with cubes of bread and only one egg instead of her three, but chard, pine nuts & raisins all in a pastry crust.

ANDREWS, Colman

Flavors of the Riviera.

Book treats inter-relationship between Italian & French coasts. Nothing from Genoa or other parts of Liguria remotely like the nonna's dolce.

However, his Sweet Swiss Chard Torte on pp. 162-3 is even more quiche-like than the small sampling of Lucchese recipes I saw. Richer. 2 entire pounds of chard. Golden raisins, marc or grappa, pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano (if you could believe it), EVOO, apples, 5 eggs, flour, sugar and butter. Adapted from Chez Barale, Nice. I love Italy, but I gotta say this one intrigues me the most thus far.

All over the Meditteranean, from Catalonia to the Peloponneses, greens are cooked with pine nuts and raisins as a vegetable dish--a device that has always seemed quite medieval to me...In Nice, the same idea is taken on step further: Swiss chard, with raisins and pine nuts mixed in, is sweetened, bound with egg and baked in a pastry shell.

Carol Field's *The Italian Baker* had nothing; same with *Great Italian Desserts* by Nicholas Malgieri. (There are a lot of recipes for savory torte with spinach, herbs or greens.)

Edited July 26, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[maggiethecat]

Pontormo:

This is why eG rocks and rolls -- someone else does the research for you. Grazie tanti,

Cara.

Nonna didn't have handy access to Swiss Chard -- I have it easier. My husband is bemused by the parm, and the quichelike quality, but he admit it sounds good, and familiar.

If you've read Buford's Heat, you know he makes a case for all Tuscan food being Brown. I think this torta is greenish brown.

[divina]

It is a pie from Lucca and I can get you my recipe tomorrow!

I adore it.. much like pumpkin pie in flavor to me.