Leftovers? Torta rustica

We have had this before, but with a very different recipe. That’s the way with leftovers, they are never quite the same twice. I think torta rustica is very generic and there are no recipes or a million, whichever you choose to think. Here is the recipe for this one. Oh, by the way, the twirls on the top don’t say anything. They look so much like they do that I spent some minutes trying to remember what I meant to say until I remembered they were just random bits of pastry.

Torta Rustica or leftover tart, which sounds like an 18th century character in a novel.

4 hearty servings
Heat the oven to 200°C or 400°F

enough crust to cover your baking dish

2 sausages removed from their casings
optional 30 grams or 1 ounce of diced pancetta
about 4 cups or 1 liter of leftover vegetables
a chunk of stale bread
milk to soften it
herbs at your pleasure
salt to taste, probably none with the sausages and pancetta
an egg
another egg, beaten with a bit of water for egg washing the pastry

Put the sausage meat, pancetta, most of the vegetables, the soaked bread, the herbs you choose into a food processor and mix really well. Taste for salt and correct. Add the egg and mix again.

Oil or butter a baking dish — this one is 4″ wide by 10″ long and a bit over an inch deep. Spoon the mixture into it, then scatter over the top whatever vegetables you reserved, if any, in smallish pieces. Mine has potato and cauliflower.

Put the pastry on top of the vegetables and use any trimmings to decorate it in a way that will make you think you were sending yourself messages. With a brush, apply the egg wash over it all.

Put it in the oven and in about 25 to 30 minutes it should be golden and crusty and as individual as the contents of your refrigerator

I used frozen puff pastry, because I can keep it in the freezer all the time and use it whenever inspired. If I lived nearer to my friend’s pastry shop, I would arrange to buy half a pound of freshly made puff pastry from her, but she’s far, far away at dinner time. It would be worth it if I were having guests, though. Other times I have used a plain short pastry and still others a pasta brisé. You use whatever you like.

This is best served just warm or room temperature, so it would make a great buffet dish. It can sit for hours with no alteration in it’s goodness. If you keep it overnight in the fridge, you will probably want to reheat it, but if you microwave it I think the crust will go rubbery.

If you were to go utterly mad and use both a top and a bottom crust, you could take it on a picnic and be very posh.