[Sca-cooks] Need Spanish suggestions

[Robin]

The recipe below is one that mistress jadwiga and i both served at 
separate.feasts, and it was well-received at each.  forgive the lack of 
capitals -- my keyboard has had too much coffee.

if you have any questions, let me know.


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.

-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net