[Sca-cooks] Torta a la Genovesa . . . solids and/or liquids

grizly grizly at mindspring.com
Thu Dec 7 13:56:40 PST 2006


-----Original Message-----
< < < < < < 127. Torta a la Genovesa
Genovese Tart

A pound of almonds well-peeled, and another of pine nuts, and another
of toasted hazelnuts, and grind them all together in a mortar and
after grinding, set them aside. And take a pot with water, and salt,
and oil. And this shall be on a flesh day, and taste [to see] if it
is well-salted; and take a half pound of raisins without seeds, and
three ounces of peeled dates cut into quarters, and three or four
apples which are sweet-sour or sweet, and quarter them and remove the
core and seeds, and cast them in the pot to cook. And when it is
well-boiled, the apples will be cooked. And then remove them from the
water, and grind them with the dates, and raisins, and almonds, and
with the hazelnuts, and pine nuts. And after they are well-ground,
blend it all with the said broth; and if it is a flesh day, you may
cast into the mortar a dozen eggs ground up with the aforementioned
things. And then strain it through a sieve, and having done this take
good dough which is well-kneaded, and make a trencher as large as if
it were the bottom of the frying pan which you have, and make its
edges like a empanada without a top; however, let it be the size of
the frying pan neither more no less, and put it in the frying pan;
and when it is inside, cast in a little oil underneath so that the
dough does not stick to the frying pan; and then cast all that sauce
or foodstuff in the pie, <<SNIP>>>>>>>>>

It has been itching at me, so I re-read the recipe.  Are we making a
complicated, fruited, almond/pinenut/hazelnut milk with extracted pectin for
the torta here?  We cook all the fruits (extracting pectin??); add cooked
fruits to gound nuts, then blending it with the cooking broth again (adding
eggs here if desired).

Instructions then say to strain it through a sieve, and then later says ". .
. cast all that sauce or foodstuff in the pie . . ."  Granted, we have a
language change here, but it almost seems as if it could be making a pectin
set liquor or one set with both pectin and eggs.  Nothing specific is said
about whether we use what is left in the sieve, the liquids, or if we are
fine-grinding/mashing the goodies through the sieve mesh.

I would want to have all the goodies AND the liquid in my pie, but that
doesn't seem to be specified here in our text.  More grist for discussions?

niccolo difrancesco




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