So much from one plate of food
Somewhere or other I had a quote about there being a whole world on a plate of food. But I have lost it. Mostly this kind of quote -and I have seen this kind of sentiment in several places, refers to the history of the dish itself, and its ingredients. What I am looking at today is rather more personal but it has indeed been a ramble.
As I have intimated in the last few posts I'm working in my head towards a post on Robert Carrier classics but then the night before last I made his Italian spinach pie using my home-made ricotta and it was so good that I thought I should somehow give it its own post.
Above is my substantial - some would say greedy - piece from the tart in the background. Well it was dinner and I don't eat much during the day. I suppose it doesn't look that sensational, and if you were to read the recipe you might just think it was a fairly ho-hum spinach quiche. And it sort of is.
This is the whole thing straight from the oven - well actually a few moments after. Quiches are a bit like soufflés in that they puff up beautifully in the oven but as soon as you take them out they collapse.
I had thought of making it, partly because of the upcoming Carrier classics post, partly because of Monika's generous gift of silver beet, and partly because of my self-satisfaction over the making of ricotta. However, as I began to 'research' Robert Carrier classics, I found myself wandering here and there, so now it has its own post.
I could not find the recipe online - but will provide it at the end of this post as many other writers do. I just hope I'm not breaking some copyright law in doing so. I did find this anonymous comment however - well plea really - at the end of another recipe for Italian spinach pie on the Recipe Land website:
"i had a recipe for spinach tart on a robert carrier cookery card which probably dates from the 19 60. 70s It is vastly superior to any other i have tried but have lost the card. can anyone help?"
I was reassured by his/her endorsement of the recipe and then today I found the recipe card he/she mentioned - although there it is called a tart rather than a pie. But then Carrier was American so maybe hadn't yet dropped calling tarts pies when he wrote his first book. The cookery cards came later than Great Dishes of the World where my recipe comes from. However, I wonder why the person selling those cards on e-bay chose no.21 - Italian spinach tart as the recipe to entice people to buy. Maybe they thought it was the best recipe in the pack too.
So why is it so great? Well before I try to answer that let me confess to a couple of minor changes I made to the recipe. The first - as I have already mentioned was substituting ricotta for cottage cheese. Moreover it was not 'real' ricotta because it was made from milk not whey. I also did not have quite enought so boosted it with a bit of cream cheese that I had in the fridge. I also used the last of Monika's silver beet, but I also did not have enough of that, and so I did indeed use frozen spinach. And there was more of that than the silver beet and so the spinach taste came through more.
That said - why is it so great? Well I think it is really loaded with spinach unlike this example of an Italian spinach ricotta quiche from the Recipe Land website. And that also has quite a lot of onions in it. Robert Carrier's is all spinach, ricotta and Parmesan - plus eggs and cream to hold it all together and the tiniest pinch of nutmeg, which I think just might be the secret ingredient that makes it sing. And the ricotta made it light as well.
Today, when I made one more attempt at finding the recipe online I realised that the 'Italian' bit in Robert Carrier's recipe title might have been influenced by Torta Pasqualina which is a traditional pie - this is a pie - eaten at Easter. There is ricotta and silver beet or spinach, but there are also whole eggs - well it's Easter. So not the same thing, but possibly why Carrier went for 'Italian' in his title.
That's not the end of my musings on my plate however. For my Robert Carrier classics I decided to peruse a long ago project I had considered - to make a journal of my attempt to cook my way throught Great Dishes of the World. I think I managed around half a dozen recipes. I began it in a beautiful hand-made paper book I had been given and a pencil constructed from what looks like a twig. How pretentious can you get? The starting date is July 21 2007. It might have been around the time of Julie and Julia - the film - which gave me the idea. I also had been influenced at the time by a very artistic friend who had made several journals beautifully illustrated with this and that. And so I tried too - as you can see I somehow attached a spinach leaf to my photograph of the finished dish. However, I am no artist and soon dropped trying to add interest with pictures and things, which allowed me to say in 2016 when I picked it up again:
"So here we are in 2016, which goes to show I haven't advanced from my childhood when I never finished anything. Might pick it up again - I note I stopped illustrating it too. No staying power - that's me - except where David is concerned."
I think that must have been when I decided to begin this blog - it began in July 2016 - and look I'm still going. A miracle. Repeating myself time and time again, and probably being boring most of the time. But I have given up working my way through Great Dishes of the World. Mind you I never intended to cook absolutely everything in the book:
"I will not cook EVERYTHING -I shall omit offal and shellfish for example, and I shall not do it in order - just pick what I feel like."
I began with French onion soup and ended with Poule au pot by way of the above tart, Risi e bisi, Carbonnade de bœuf and Grilled salmon steaks. In preparation for my classics post however, I have skimmed through the entire book and at the right time I could make just about everything in it.
I used to make this tart quite often - in my short piece on it I said: "A bit of a cheat inclusion this because I make it all the time." So why haven't I made it for so long? For I haven't. I think I have been tempted way from old recipes like this by all those modern writers telling me I should make things up for myself from what is in the fridge. And so more or less every Friday, I look in the fridge and make some kind of quiche from what I find there. And they are generally pretty good. However, not nearly as good as Rc's Italian spinach pie. So here is the recipe - Try it.
ITALIAN SPINACH PIE
Ingredients
I pastry case - I usually make a big batch of shortcrust, divide it into quiche sized pieces and store it in the freezer, but you can use whatever you like. Even a shop-bought one.
350g frozen spinach
2 tablespoons butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
225g cottage cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
50g freshly grated Parmesan
6 tablespoons double cream
Grated nutmeg
Line a pie tin with pastry - I'm sure he means a tart tin - fluting the edges; chill. (I didn't). Prick bottom with a fork; and bake 'blind' in a hot oven for about 15 mins. Just long enought to set the crust without burning it. (I usually bake in a 180ºC fan oven with ceramic beads on top of grease-proof paper for 9 minutes, remove the beads and cook for a further 8 mins.) Allow to cool. (I don't do this either - I'm usually in a hurry)
Cook spinach with butter, and salt and pepper, to taste. Drain thoroughly and then add cottage cheese, with beaten eggs, grated Parmesan, cream and nutmeg to taste.
Spread mixture in pastry shell and bake the tarti in a moderate oven for 30 minutes or until the crust is brown and the cheese custard mixture has set. (I baked at the same temperature as the pastry shell - and it took about 35 mins.)
Divine. 5 stars - and we still have half left. We shall reheat and eat, although I know it won't be as good as when straight from the oven the first time.
YEARS GONE BY
October 18
2025 - Nothing
2024 - Cooked cucumber - why?
2022 - Buy this book - now
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Hamburgers
2016 - Avocado on toast is hot
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