Thursday 27 June 2013

Torta de Zucca (Pumpkin Pie)


From My Italian Heart: Recipes from an Italian kitchen, Guy Grossi, Lantern, 2005.
There was sufficient pastry dough left over from a previous cooking time to make another pie so I got stuck into this one.

A kilo of pumpkin was cut up, placed in a baking tin, seasoned and sprayed with a little oil and put into a 180ªC oven to bake. When it was done—about 20 minutes—it was taken out and left to cool. While it was cooling a leek was cut up finely and chopped and sautéed.
The pumpkin now went into a bowl to be mashed. The cooked leek was added together with about a cup of grated parmesan cheese and another cup of gruyere cheese. Two eggs were beaten and stirred in.

The pie was served with Egyptian roasted Brussels sprouts.
The dough was now halved and rolled out in two sections: one for the base and one for the top. This was a bit of a mistake for there was really only enough for a base but I persevered rolling it out thinly to make both. The result was that when the pie cooked the top shrank and became a disk sitting on top of the filling. The taste wasn’t affected though.
The pie was cooked in a 180ªC oven for about 40 minutes.
Though the pie was fine enough to eat it didn’t really do a lot for me. I think I prefer sweet pumpkin pies. I soon found that getting through a slice slowed me down and I didn’t want to finish it. It was really filling and had a texture that filled the mouth somehow. Possibly it needed something in it that would add a little variety, perhaps something crunchy.
Taste: ✔✔
Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔


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