Mar. 2005

Torta pasqualina (Easter vegetal pie)

For 10 servings:

350 grs frozen puff pastry, 800 grs beets leaves, 400 grs ricotta (buttermilk curd) cheese, grated parmesan cheese, 6 eggs, olive oil, salt, pepper, marjoram, butter flakes.

Defrost the puff pastry, rinse thoroughly the beet leaves, cut in stripes and cook them still soaked and with
salt ; drain and squeeze. In a tureen whip 4 whole eggs with salt, pepper and 4 tablespoons of grated parmesan, add the beets, ricotta ,marjoram and mix thoroughly.
Prepare a thin pastry layer, with a part cover bottom and sides of a round baking pan of 24 cm diameter and 5 cm high, sprayed with water.
Put the stuffing, make 6 holes and put into each one a butter flake, an egg, salt, pepper and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Cover with the remaining pastry, sealing the edges and wet the surface with a beaten egg content.
Put in oven at 200°c for 30 minutes and serve either warm or cold.

The suggested wines are flavoured mild whites like a Cortese ligure or the Pigato di Albenga or a Vermentino ligure.

Cima ripiena (Stuffed veal)

For 8 servings:

1.5 kgs of veal pulp, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery, 1 laurel leaf, 2 litres water, 4 soup cubes.
Stuffing: 50 grs butter, 300 grs between veal pulp and sweetbreads and spinal marrow, 50 grs peas, 20 grs dried mushrooms soaked and softened, marjoram, salt, pepper, 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, 6 eggs, 1 garlic clover.

Cut a hole into the veal pulp, rinse, dry and rub inside with the garlic clove. Brown in butter the sliced veal, the sweetbreads and the marrow, all diced, mince them and put everything in a tureen with peas, marjoram, salt, pepper, grated cheese and beaten eggs. Stir thoroughly and pour the liquid compound in the veal pulp hole filling by max. two thirds. Sew the hole with a thread.
Put the vegetables in a pan with water; when boiling, add the cubes and the sewn pulp, cooking for two hours on a mild fire, piercing with a needle. Drain and cool down on a tray with a weight on top, serve sliced.

The stuffing recommends a mild young red like a Rossese di Dolceacqua or the inero rosso or a Campochiesa.

Torta al torroncino (Nougat cake)

For 6 servings:

250 grs flour, 150 grs butter, 2 eggs, salt, 100 ml olive oil, 100 ml milk, lemon peel, baking yeast. For the stuffing: 6 eggs yolks, 100 grs sugar, 20 ml milk, vanilla powder, 50 grs almonds, 20 grs honey, 300 grs butter, 100 grs nougat, 100 grs chocolate.

Stuffing: boil the milk with sugar, add the almonds and vanilla and cook for 3 minutes; pout the still warm compounds on the eggs and, still stirring, put again on the fire without boiling. Cool down and add the butter, then add the crushed nougat and the crushed chocolate.
Base: in a tureen, whip the eggs with sugar, lemon peel and a pinch of salt, add milk and oil. In another tureen sieve the flour with milk and add the previous compound. When homogenous, pour in a buttered baking pan and put in oven at 200°c for 30 minutes.
Cut the base in 3 layers, spread with the cream and sprinkle the surface with icing sugar.

The suitable match is a sweet dessert wine like a Sciacchetrà liquoroso or the Moscato dell’Elba or an Aleatico.