[Sca-cooks] Torta a la Genovesa

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

I have made this a time or two, and it was pretty good.  A full recipe 
fit nicely into my 16-inch cast-iron frying pan.  For a standard-sized 
pie pan or cake pan, 1/3 of the ingredients works well.  I have not 
tried it with eggs.  The original Spanish says, "si es dia de carne 
puedes echar enel mortero una dozena de huevos majados conlas 
sobredichas cosas."   "Majados" could literally be translated as 
"pounded".  "Majar" is the verb commonly used to describe grinding food 
in a morter.  As Master Adamantius has already commented, the morter was 
often used for tasks that would now be performed by other kitchen tools.

I can find in the text of the "Libro de Guisados" arguments for both 
possibilities: raw eggs and cooked eggs, but I lean towards the former.  
In all the recipes where de Nola mentions hard-boiled eggs, he always 
specifies using the yolks only.  Since this recipe says :eggs" without 
any qualifier, I think raw eggs would be the default.

As for the nature of enpanadas, and information about pastry crusts, you 
might want to look at  the glossary in my translation.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Guisados1-art.text
Scroll down to the bottom, and read the section "Enpanadas and pasteles".

The filling is to be forced through a sieve, in order to give it a 
smoother consistency.  The dates should probably be fresh.  Fresh dates 
are hard-to-find and expensive in my area, so I used the moistest dried 
dates I could find.  The filling is dense and rich, and not overly sweet.

The torta is open-faced.  It's baked Dutch-oven style, with coals on the 
lid.  I used my electric overn.  I don't recall what temperature I used 
-- probably 350 F.  Time wasn't very long, as the filling is (mostly) 
cooked.  Maybe 45 minutes to 1 hour?

Hope this is helpful.

-- 

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