12th Night Feast: Torta de Zanahoria (Carrot Pie) Recipe

Torta de Zanahoria,
originally uploaded by iasmindecordoba.

Damn tasty. Recipe to follow via entry edit.

As promised, here is the recipe for the pie we tested tonight. It’s a root vegetable pie recipe from Diego Granado’s Libro de Arte de Cozina (1599) and the English is courtesy of Mistress Brighid ni Chiarain from the Barony of Setmore Swamp, East Kingdom.

Torta de Zanahoria — Wash and scrape the carrots, and remove them from the water and cook them in good meat broth, and being cooked remove them and chop them small with the knife, adding to them mint and marjoram, and for each two pounds of chopped carrots [use] a pound of Tronchon cheese and a pound and a half of buttery Pinto cheese, and six ounces of fresh cheese, and one ounce of ground pepper, one ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied orange peel cut small, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of cow’s butter, and from this composition make a torta with pastry above and below, and the tart pan with pastry all around, and make it cook in the oven, making the crust of sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater. In this manner you can make tortas of all sorts of roots, such as that of parsley, having taken the core out of them.

Now, compare Granado’s recipe to this translation and tell me what you think:

To make a tart of carrots, other roots and other things, chapter 111, 5th book — Wash and peel the carrots, and put them to par boil in water, and take them from this water and put them to cook in good meat broth. When they are cooked take them and mince them finely with knives, adding mint and marjoram, and for every two pounds of chopped carrots add a pound of grated Parmesan or Riviera cheese1, a pound and a half of fat cheese and six ounces of mozzarella, an ounce of ground pepper, two ounces of Naples biscuits ground2, an ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied sour orange peel chopped fine, a pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of butter. Of this mixture make a tart with pastry under and over, and fancy layered pastry works around the edge, and put it to cook in the oven or under a testo making the crust (icing) of sugar, cinnamon and rose water. In this way you can make tarts from every kind of parsnip and root of parsley after you have taken out the core.

Darn near identical, right?

That second version is from Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera, an Italian manuscript. So we can assume Granado cribbed off that book at least in part and we can take advantage of what we know about that cultural era as well when making this recipe. Thanks go out to Mistress Helewyse de Birkstead for the recipe, the original text, a scan of the original Scappi page, and some theories on the production. It’s so cool to be able to geek with someone on these things.

Here’s the recipe I came up with. And it’s Big Guy approved.

Torta de Zanahoria (Carrot Pie)

Ingredients

— approximately 12 ounces of carrots, washed and scraped free of debris
— 2 cups broth (I used chicken because it was on hand; for the feast we’ll use mushroom)
— 2 teaspoons dried mint
— 2 teaspoons dried majoram
— 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
— 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
— 1/2 cup white sugar
— 8 ounces mozarella cheese, shredded
— 7 ounces Tronchon cheese, shredded
— 3 tablespoons ricotta cheese
— 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
— 4 eggs, lightly beaten
— 1 double crust pie dough recipe, rolled out into two crusts
— sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling
— rosewater for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Take the cleaned carrots and chop them as finely as you can (consider using a food processor for this).
3. Place the chopped carrots in a pan with the broth and bring to a low simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender.
4. Remove the carrots from the broth, straining them and letting them cool to room temperature.
5. In a large bowl or mixer, combine the carrots, the spices, and the cheeses, mixing carefully until everything is evenly distributed.
6. Add the butter and the lightly beaten eggs and stir until well distributed.
7. In a tart pan or pie pan, carefully place one of the two pie crusts.
8. Spoon in the carrot filling, smoothing to level the ingredients.
9. Carefully place the top crust on, seal or crimp the edges, and make a few small vent holes in the top.
10. Sprinkle a very small amount of rosewater on the top crust and immediately sprinkle with a small amount of cinnamon and sugar.
11. Bake the pie for 45-55 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is set.

Notes

I didn’t use any of the candied orange peel because I actually had run out and didn’t know it. I’d intended on including it because I think it would have changed the flavor subtlely. The pie is great without it, however.

The filling came out dense, but not eggy or custard-like, nor greasy or overly cheesy. It wasn’t really like a custard pie or quiche at all, and I expected it to be.

I used quite a bit less sugar than called for by the proportions. I didn’t seem to miss the extra sweetness, though the recipe does call for more.

Because I was also out of rosewater, I subbed in orange flower water as the spritz on the crust to stick the spices down. It was very gently applied and you couldn’t really taste it in the final product. I didn’t want the pie to be perfumy.

I might even consider upping the spices. I think my majoram is too old and lacked a certain punch. The mint wasn’t overpowering, despite being freshly dried.