Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2014

The Torta Verde Process

Have you ever heard of Torta Verde?  That's Italian for "Green Cake".   I always crack up at the idea of a "Green Cake" when it actually has nothing to do with cake at all and is in fact a savoury vegetable pie.   I've also heard it called Torta Pasqualina, or "Easter Cake" and that version has whole eggs dropped in to the pie so that when you cut through you get slices of hard baked egg in the middle of your pie. There are probably about a million different versions of this pie out there.. and I think the reason lies in the word Easter - a pie made traditionally at Easter time which would be Spring in Italy and when the first young, tender veg would be harvested. Which is why Swiss Chard makes an appearance in this recipe as it over-winters well and puts on a final flourish  in early Spring just before it heads on to seed later in the season.  Wild herbs like Nettles and Dandelions would also be added, and you can still find recipes ar...