A Bolognese herb tourte

In a classic case of "I found this whilst looking for something else"-ness, I...found this whilst looking for something else. In Scappi's Opera.*

I had most of the ingredients, and it sounded pretty good, and I needed something for lunches, so I thought I'd just make it. 

As you do.

The first version, I Ina Gartened it (if you don't have fresh/can't make your own, store-bought is fine!) by using puff pastry I already had, and ricotta from the shop. I told myself this was just to, you know, figure out proportions. It worked out really well, and I'd serve this version at a modern dinner any day of the week. 

However, being a good little apprentice, I couldn't just get on with my life. Oh, no. I needed to do it more properly-er.

Scappi typically uses two types of pastry: basic water/flour, largely for pies, that is intended to be discarded, and what is essentially paté sucrée (typically with bonus rosewater) that is intended to be eaten. This tourte falls into the latter category. 

So, I made some pastry - gluten-free, because that is my life, now, and have just realised that I completely forgot to put in the rosewater. Ah, well...

At any rate, here's what Maestro Scappi has to say:

Book V. Pastry: Tourtes
96. To make a Bolognese herb tourte without eggs, baked on a copper sheet or braised in earthenware.

When the chard greens have been chopped up small and washed, let them drain by themselves. Then, without crushing them, mix them with grated Parmesan cheese and struccoli – that is, cheese freshly made that day – along with pepper and cinnamon. Then get a copper baking sheet greased with a little butter and with a sheet of pastry dough on it; on that sheet gently put the filling to a height of a good three fingers. On the filling put little chunks of butter and cover it with another sheet of pastry, rippled or smooth, crimping it all around. Sprinkle it with plain water and brush it with butter: that is done so the pastry will rise. Bake it in an oven or braise it in an earthenware vessel. When it is done a tourte like that will have flattened so much that it is scarcely half a finger high. Serve it hot with sugar over it. Rather than on a sheet of copper you can also do it on an earthenware baking sheet or in tourte pans.

And my redaction went thusly:

A Bolognese herb tourte without eggs

For the pastry:

2x paté sucrée (sweet pastry with egg yolk) with rosewater

For the fresh cheese:

4 pints whole milk (unpasteurised, if you can get it)

1/4 c vinegar (I used champagne vinegar, because I'm fancy, but white wine/apple cider vinegars work just fine)

For the filling:

250 g stemmed chard, washed and cut into 1cm strips (some or all of the stem is OK, if you want a bit of crunch)

150g fresh farmers cheese (or ricotta), drained

100 g grated Parmesan

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Salt (to taste - the cheese may well be salty enough, but I put a pinch in anyway because salt)

Scant 15 g butter for filling

Melted butter for brushing

To make the cheese:

Heat the milk over medium/medium-low heat until it just starts to bubble around the edges. Don't heat it too quickly or it will scald on the bottom. A thermometer should read 180F/85C. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar, and give it a stir. It should start to curdle immediately. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. Strain through a collander/sieve lined with cheesecloth. Squeeze gently to remove a bit more whey, but go easy.

To make the tourte:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F-ish. Roll out half of your pastry and put on a baking tray or pizza stone. Mix chard, cheeses, salt, pepper, and cinnamon together in a large bowl (Note: mixing the cheeses/spices together first then adding them to the chard helps ensure even distribution). Pile filling to 6-8 cm high. Cover with the other half of the rolled-out dough, crimp edges, stab holes in the lid for steam escapage. Brush with water and butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half-way through. Good warm, not terrible cold.

I would have made this fancier, but it's a test kitchen and GF pastry is a bitch, yo

So, for accidental recipe redaction and baking, it turned out pretty tasty. Even my non-SCAdian husband has determined that it merits a place in regular meal rotation, and not just because we used chard from our own garden. 

We now return to our regularly-scheduled research.

*The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570); The Art and Craft of a Master Cook
Translated with commentary by Terrence Scully
University of Toronto Press, 2008