[Sca-cooks] Carrot-Cheese Pie (recipe and redaction)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Here's the recipe I was mentioning.

Torta de Zanahoria (Carrot Pie)

	Wash and scrape the carrots, and remove them from the water and cook them in good meat broth, and being cooked remove them and chop them small with the knife, adding to them mint and marjoram, and for each two pounds of chopped carrots [use] a pound of Tronchon cheese and a pound and a half of buttery Pinto cheese, and six ounces of fresh cheese, and one ounce of ground pepper, one ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied orange peel cut small, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of cow's butter, and from this composition make a torta with pastry above and below, and the tart pan with pastry all around, and make it cook in the oven, making the crust of sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater. In this manner you can make tortas of all sorts of roots, such as that of parsley, having taken the core out of them.	                                                   

Diego Granado, Libro del Arte de Cozina, 1599 


Redaction:
1/2 lb. carrots, cooked and drained			
1/2 oz. candied orange peel
4 oz. mozzarella, shredded				
1/4 tsp. dried marjoram
6 oz. monterey jack, shredded			
1/2 tsp dried mint
1-1/2 oz. ricotta cheese				
2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 TBS butter					
pastry for 2-crust pie (preferably made with butter)
1/2 TBS cinnamon				
cinnamon sugar
1/2 c. sugar					
rosewater

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Combine all of the filling ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Place in the bottom crust.  Put on the top crust, and seal the edges well.  Brush the top crust with rosewater, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the crust is brown, and the filling is set.

Notes:
This appears to be one of the recipes that Granado "borrowed" from Scappi.  It appears in a chapter entitled, "Divers Manners of Tortas, or Tortadas, Which in Italy are Called Costradas, and in Naples, Copos".  I made some substitutions in the cheeses.  I have been unable to identify Pinto cheese, so I substituted mozzarella, which is a period cheese (Granado refers to it in other recipes).  Tronchon is a Spanish variety which is still produced today, but it is rare and hard to obtain.  Its flavor is supposed to be mild, and I thought Monterey Jack, though a modern cheese, might work in this recipe.  Fresh cheese is a soft, newly-made cheese, and Ricotta has a similar taste and texture, even though it is a whey cheese.



Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net