Torta Verde Italian pastry dough . filling . assembly

Torta Verde (Spinach Pie)

This may seem complex and convoluted but it's easy as... well... pie, and well worth the effort!

Italian Pastry Dough

Ingredients

Preparation

1. In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Add oil, mix together with fork. Using 1 Tbsp at a time, sprinkle in up to ½ c. water, mixing til dough just holds together.
2. Knead til smooth and elastic. Make ball. Cover with damp cloth and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Filling

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Put washed spinach in a colander. Sprinkle with 1½ Tbsp salt. Toss to mix and set aside to drain 20 minutes.
2. Mix cheese, parsley, marjoram, garlic and egg in a bowl. Add potato and onion; season with salt and pepper.
3. Squeeze out the spinach with your hands til it is quite dry. Discard juice; add spinach to potato mix. Mix in 1½ Tbsp oil and set aside.

Assembly of Pie

1. Turn on oven to 375F. Lightly oil and flour 14 inch pizza pan. Divide dough into 2 balls - two thirds of the dough is for the bottom crust, 1/3 for the top. On a floured surface, roll out dough for bottom crust to about 15 inches in diameter, then use pan as a template to cut to right size. Put the bottom crust in the pan.
2. Spread filling evenly to 1 inch from edge.
3. Roll out top crust; place on top filling. Crimp the edges to seal. With fork; pierce the top surface several times. Make indentations with fingers. Drizzle with remaining 1½ Tbsp oil.
4. Bake til golden about 35 minutes.

based on a recipe in Colman Andrews' article "The Italian Torta", SAVEUR magazine, May/Jun 1998

printer friendly file

eggplant lasagna . stuffed Manicotti . regular pastry

Spinach prepared this way is excellent on pizza or in an omelette. It's also the perfect way to blanch the spinach for palak paneer.

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ejm (aka llizard) 2000, 2002
Toronto Ontario Canada