This is a post that’s been on my main blog since 2008. I thought that since it’s medieval cooking, I’d move it over here and start a new category for similar posts. This tart is just so good – and it looks good, too. Medieval food was about presentation as well as taste, and you could pipe this into a great hall with pride.

The recipe is from a book called THE MEDIEVAL KITCHEN: Recipes from France and Italy, by Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi. Essentially, they went through medieval manuscripts in search of recipes. (It’s available only in print. Here’s an Amazon link.) The recipes are presented in their initial form, then modernized, the way we’re used to seeing recipes written.

This is the Torta Bolognese or Herbed Swiss Chard and Cheese Pie. (page 141)

Just in case you don’t have the book at hand, here’s the excerpted modern version of the recipe.

Pâté brisée

Filling:
1 lb raclette, young tomme de Savoie  or othre tomme, or cream cheese, softened. (450g)
7 ounces Swiss chard leaves (200g)
1 handful fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh marjoram leaves or 1 tsp dried marjoram or oregano
4 tbsp butter at room temperature
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
saffron
black pepper
salt

Prepare the pastry (okay, I shortened that. If you make pastry, you have a recipe already. Just do what you do.) and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grate or mash the cheese. Trim and wash the greens and herbs. Chop them finely in a food processor, then add the cheese and process until you have a smooth green mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat the whole eggs and blend them into the mixture. Add salt to taste, and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Crush 3 or 4 threads of saffron between your fingers and add them to the mixture along with the softened butter. Process until thoroughly blended. Roll out about 2/3 of the dough and line a deep 9″ tart pan.  Add the filling, roll out the remaining pastry, and cover the pie, pressing the seams tightly shut. Set the tart pan on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and put in the oven. Crush a few threads of saffron between your fingers and add them to the egg yolk; beat well to blend and leave to infuse. When the pie has baked for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and paint the top crush with the egg yolk and saffron mixture. Return to the oven and bake for another 45 minutes to an hour.

That’s ©1998 University of Chicago.

Now, if you’re wondering what raclette or tomme cheese is, you’re not alone. I’ve eaten raclette and it’s yummy, but had no idea what kind of cheese to buy. I use the better part of a 16 oz tub of ricotta, as well as some other fragrant cheese grated, like Oka. I also add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the mixture and some sliced black olives. I don’t use a food processor – I just coarsely chop the Swiss chard leaves. We have teeth to chew our food and “a smooth green mixture” doesn’t sound that appealing to me.  With my changes, this is a fabulous tart that looks beautiful, too. Mr. C. makes his tomato salad to serve with it, the one with the carmelized onions and balsamic viniagrette, and neither one of us minds re-runs the next night.

What’s interesting – a note for you Swiss chard skeptics – is that it doesn’t taste much like chard. I used the same combination of ingredients in a quiche with no topping and the chard taste was very strong. This gets raves all around, though, so it’s how I’ll be using up the chard frozen from last summer’s garden. You could also substitute spinach for the chard, but you wouldn’t get the chewy bits from the chard stems.

Go on. You know you want to make one.