To Prepare a Pupkin-and-Onion Tourte

Translation:

Get the same amount of each and parboil them in water (pumpkin and onion); take them out and squeeze the water out of them so that they end up quite dry.  Beat them on a table that is not of walnut and sauté them in butter or lard.  When they have cooled, for every two pounds of fried pumpkin and onion, get a pound of fresh provantura, a pound of creamy cheese ground up with the provatura, half a pound of grated parmesan cheese, ten fresh eggs, a beaker or milk, a pound of sugar, three-quarters of an ounce of pepper, an ounce of cinnamon and a little saffron.  With that mixture make up a torte with a lower and upper shell and the flaky-pastry twist around it.  Bake it in an oven or braise it.  A tourte like that always needs to be served hot.  In the filling you can put a handful of beaten herbs – that will depend on the taste of the person it is intended for. (Scappi p. 484/Book VR. 107)

Ingredients:

4 C. of pumpkin skinned and sliced

½ C. butter

4 C. Ricotta

2 C. Parmesan

5 eggs

2 C. Whole milk

2 C. Sugar

½ tsp. ground pepper

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Pinch of saffron

Pie crust:

1 C. Butter

1 tsp. salt

2 ½ C. flour

1 C. cold water

Mix together the butter, salt and flour.  Add the water a Tbs. at a time until a soft smooth ball forms.

Redaction:

First thing, I had to find a “period” type of pumpkin.  I went with Cinderella pumpkin as the most period I could find. 

It helps that this was done during fall, right before Halloween.  Get a small one.  The small one will make 6 pies.

Next, I cut the pumpkin into large chunks, taking out the seeds, and took off the rind.  The inner pumpkin cut into smaller pieces. 

You don’t need a lot.  I used 1/6 of the pumpkin to get the necessary amount of 4 cups.  Boil these in water until tender.  Drain then smoosh until smooth.

Add in your ingredients, blend until smooth.

Roll out your dough.  Make the bottom thicker than the top.  This is a wet tourte.  As you can see, I did press designs into the dough. 

My decorating skills need a bit of work.  I should have measured the top lid before using the wooden dough stamp.  Next time!

I chose not to use herbs because I wanted just the basic taste before getting fancy. 

Put the lid on the tourte on and bake for about an hour (ish) until the crust is a nice golden brown.

The taste was very pumpkin, onion, eggy.  I upped the cheese for next time, and I might add a cream cheese instead of just straight ricotta as this was a very damp tourte. 

Tasty but not something I’m going to make again.