Before we decided that Tucson was to be our home, we dreamed of moving to Lucca, in the Tyrrhenian plains of Tuscany, Italy. We absolutely love Lucca - its rich and vibrant history, the architecture which runs from medieval to Art Nouveau, its cultural scene, its people, its few tourists, and, of course, its food.
For Mark's 50th birthday (you may recall that he just turned 60) we decided to spend a week in an apartment in Lucca. We rented an apartment, adjacent to the Duomo di San Martino, the city's cathedral.
When we travel, we enjoy spending at least a week in a single place so that we can get to know the neighbors, shopkeepers, restaurant staff, and market vendors. No matter how we respect local custom, we know we are identifiable as tourists, but that is also the reason people remember us when they encounter us more than once. They are honored when mere transients choose to patronize their business more than once, especially small places off the beaten track.
In Lucca, we made friends easily. One couple that stands out is Stefano and Silvia. Stefano runs a small ceramics shop called Vissidarte at Via Calderia, 20. Stefano loves opera in general, and Puccini, in particular. Every Luccan loves their native son, Giacomo Puccini, but Stefano makes it an art form. Literally.
He has named his shop after one of the most famous Puccini arias - Vissi d'arte (“I lived for art”). He and I had a great time discussing opera and music, and he is quite knowledgeable. We bantered half in English and half in Italian, and he recommended that Mark and I tour Puccini’s house a block away (which we did) and, of course, we bought ceramics from Stefano.
You can't turn too far in our home without seeing something from his shop. Our cabinet knobs, our olive oil dishes, our soap dish, our olive oil bottle, our cookie jar...the list goes on. Once we even had friends buy us additional knobs for our kitchen in Maine. Naturally, we brought all the knobs to Tucson with us!
One afternoon that April in 2002, we came across a line at a bakery. Wouldn't YOU want to know what invited this line? It was for the Luccan specialty - torta di erbe. It is a savory-sweet pie made with spinach and spices. The memory of the moment was heightened by the passage through the narrow stone streets of three contadini playing traditional shepherd’s instruments. A couple of years ago, I made a torta di erbe for Mark's birthday.
Recently, on National Public Radio, Mark heard a story about a similar pie that is an Easter specialty of the Province of Lucca. He forwarded the link and I made it from the recipe online. It is NOT what we had in Lucca – perhaps I’ll share a recipe for that one another time – but it was really unique and very good.
How good? Well, at Easter dinner one very particular (read: picky) teen took a piece and really liked it. The ingredient that gives this dessert its unique flavor is maraschino liqueur.
I bought a bottle just for this recipe. At first I assumed, for cost-saving purposes, I could simply buy a jar of maraschino cherries and used the juice. Upon opening the bottle of liqueur, I can say that drained cherry juice would have been a big mistake.
Maraschino liqueur has no resemblance to the lurid plasticized cherries that share the name. It is like no other liqueur I have ever had. It is herbal with a slight almond overtone, and has an aftertaste similar to Drambuie. It is made with cherry pits, as amaretto is made with apricot pits. It really has no cherry taste at all.
Though auto-correct confuses Tucson with Tuscan, Tucson isn't Lucca and, conversely, Lucca isn't Tucson. I am truly glad we made the choice we did, as we can always visit our beloved Lucca, our friends there, and, of course, the bakery where we first had Torta di Erbe.
Buon appetito!
~ David
Torta Co' Bischeri Agli Spinaci (Luccan Sweet Spinach Pie)
minimally adapted from Dolci: Italy's Sweets by Francine Segan, copyright 2011
Serves 8 to 10
18 ounces all-purpose flour
18 tablespoons unsalted butter
scant cup granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons ice water
2 teaspoons baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
1 pound fresh baby spinach
8 ounces ground almonds
4 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 ounces minced candied citron
1/4 cup Maraschino liqueur
3 tablespoons pine nuts
confectioners' sugar
Mix the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor fitted with a steel blade until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Mix the egg yolks with the ice water and add that mixture plus the baking powder, zest and salt; mix until dough forms.
Roll the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
Lightly butter a 10-inch deep-dish pie pan.
Roll out 2/3 of the dough, making it large enough to hang well over the sides. Using a fork, poke holes throughout the entire bottom and sides of the crust. Refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Cook the spinach in a few ounces of salted water until tender. Allow to cool. Squeeze out all the cooking liquids and finely chop in a mini food processor.
In a bowl, beat the yolks with 1/3 cup of the sugar until creamy and light yellow. Add the ground almonds and beat until well combined. Add the spinach, candied peel and liqueur, and mix until well combined.
In a separate bowl, beat the whites until soft peaks form, then add in the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and beat until it forms a glossy meringue.
Slowly fold the meringue into the yolk mixture. Pour into the prepared crust. Sprinkle with the pine nuts.
Roll out the remaining dough to form a lattice over the top of the filling.
Bake for about 1 hour, until golden.
Allow to cool to room temperature. Serve sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.
Serves 8-10. Labels: citron, Easter pie, Easter tradition, Lucca, maraschino liqueur, pine nuts, spinach, spinach pie, tuscany
