Saturday, September 05, 2009

SATURDAY VEGETABLE TORTE


I adapted these from a recipe in a July Corriere della Sera supplement:

For the courgette tart, I more or less did what it said, which was: Line a baking tray with baking parchment and on this put a ready-rolled sheet of bought puff pastry [pasta sfoglia if you are in Italy]. With a sharp knife, mark a 1 cm border all around, taking care not to cut right through the pastry. [How much is a centimetre? I don't know. I can do metric weights but not measures! Go for half an inch if you're not sure.] Now, this is my addition: I remembered from one of the wonderful Nigella's pie recipes that she said that sprinkling some breadcrumbs on the pastry helps stop it getting soggy under the filling, so I threw on a handful of pane grattuggiato. You can use fresh breadcrumbs if you can't get this. Next slice 4 courgettes as thinly as possible [I used the processor slicer] then put them in a bowl with the grated rind of a lemon, 2 tablesp olive oil plus seasalt and black pepper. Mix them well and then arrange on the pastry. Use a pastry brush to brush the borders well with beaten egg. Put the tray in an oven heated to 180 C for 25 mins. Have ready some nice, crumbly feta cheese and some fresh mint leaves and sprinkle both over the torta when you take it out of the oven. Serve immediately. [It will be too fragile to be removed from the baking tray so cut into slices and serve from that.]



Well, that turned out all right so I got adventurous:

Prepare the baking tray and pastry as before. Don't forget the breadcrumbs! Heat 2 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan and add a very thinly sliced aubergine. Stir this around and leave to soften and take on some colour. [No, I didn't salt the aubergine first.] Be prepared to add more oil as aubergines are devils for soaking the stuff up! Prepare 2 courgettes as before, using only 1 tablesp oil, and add 2 sliced tomatoes to them in the bowl. When the aubergines are ready, arrange them with the tomatoes and courgettes on the pastry. Cook and add feta and mint as before.



Buon appetito.

6 comments:

Trubes said...

Mmmm. That looks delicious Welshcakes I've got the ingredients in to make it, so, I shall have a go later.
Thank you, yet again for another 'cracking foodie recipe.
I've done a few recipes from The Cucina Del Sole Cookbook, they are really very good, but I wish there were some illustrations in it.
Time for you to write your own cookbook, methinks!
Part two, of my post on, The Beatles etc, is up for your perusal! Hope you enjoy it.

Love Di.x

James Higham said...

People always put the word wonderful together with Nigella - a collocation in fact.

CherryPie said...

The second one looks especially tasty :-)

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Thanks, Trubes. Glad you are going to try it. I like cookbooks with pics too! I'm sure I'll enjoy your next Beatles post. Love to all of you. xx Hi, James. Yes, that's what it is! Thanks, Cherie.

sally in norfolk said...

one to make for Geoff I think :-)

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I hope he enjoys it, Sally.

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