Spinach Torta
My zio Tony’s spinach torta is legendary and a speciality of Borgo Val di Taro where his family
hails from. It’s true that the simplest ingredients and recipes often make really tasty dishes loved
by everyone. This is a great picnic dish also. Although this version doesn’t call for pine nuts, you
can toast some to taste and add to give a nutty flavour to the torta. Serves 8
Ingredients:
4 handfuls of fresh spinach
60 ml olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
6 fresh basil leaves, torn
a handful of pine nuts (optional)
grated Parmesan cheese
500 g puff pastry
3 eggs, beaten
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Wash the spinach and blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Remove, drain and squeeze out as
much water as you can.
Pour the olive oil into a pan and gently fry the garlic, onion, fresh basil and pine nuts, if
using, mixing in the spinach after a few minutes and adding a generous amount of Parmesan,
salt and pepper. Fry for just a few minutes over a medium heat and then switch off the heat,
leaving the ingredients in the pan to warm through.
Roll out the pastry to about 3 mm in thickness and use it to line a greased shallow
ovenproof dish, allowing an overlap of 2 cm round the edges.
Spread the spinach filling out inside to about 1 cm in thickness, then pour the beaten eggs
in on top and fold the pastry overlap over the edges of the spinach to seal it.
Bake in the oven at Gas Mark 4/180°C for 40 minutes and serve hot or cold.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster
