Turta, a rice dish from Piemonte
I don’t have very many cookbooks and I don’t use very many. I gave away practically a lifetime’s worth when I moved to Italy. I surprised myself a few weeks ago by reaching out for a cookbook at the supermarket that was all food of Piemonte and Val d’Aosta. Piemonte has a fabulous reputation for a deep and rich cuisine unlike warmer parts of Italy. In reality, my part of Umbria is quite a lot like Piemonte– mountainous, wet, green and forested. We have similar wild things and grow similar crops. Chestnuts, truffles, corn/maize, game are all on our menu, too, but although we eat rice, our tradition is not rice because we don’t grow it.
Two weeks ago I used one of the pasta recipes, of which there are few in that area, for Tagliatelle alla Biellese, published back then. This week I fell for a photograph of a green rice pie. It was gorgeous! I don’t know why mine isn’t as emerald as theirs unless they played with the colors, but it looked good enough, I thought.
Mind you, I did not eat this dish myself, but my diners all liked it and several said it was substantial enough to be a main course. For our vegetarian diner it was the main course. One of its good attributes is that it could be made ahead, then rewarmed, or it could be assembled and then baked the last hour before you wanted it. My oven was too busy for that approach, so it was gently rewarmed with some other courses.
Here is the translated recipe:
Turta
2 cups or 360 g of Italian rice, such as arborio or carnarola
abundant boiling and salted water
1 onion chopped fine
1 leek chopped fine (or a similar amount of chopped shallot)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
12 ounces or 350 g cooked spinach
grated nutmeg
5 eggs, beaten
1.5 ounce or 40 grams Parmigiano or other hard grating cheese, grated
1 tablespoon more of butter
preheat the oven to 180°C or 360°F
butter really well an 8" springform pan
I think it is easiest to clean and cook a lot of spinach, drain well and then reserve the amount you need for this dish while eating the rest with the meal of that day. This is the very height of spinach season, and it will never taste better than it does right now. In Italy you can buy spinach already cooked in film-wrapped balls. Anyone can buy frozen spinach, but how much will end up weighing the 12 ounces you need once cooked? Anyway, it's easier not to be cleaning and cooking and then chopping up the spinach while you are doing the rest of the recipe. Once cooked and drained, chop it on a cutting board with a knife.
Heat the salted water and then toss in the rice and cook until just al dente. This will cook again, so make sure it is really al dente!
While the rice cooks, in a very large frying pan heat the oil and the first butter and then sautè the onion and leek or shallot until it just starts to turn golden. Add the chopped spinach and mix it in well. Grate some nutmeg over it. Add the cooked rice, stirring it in very well, then stir in the 5 beaten eggs. mixing really well. Taste and correct for salt.
Scrape the mixture into the buttered springform pan, smoothing the top with your spoon or spatula. Cover the top with the grated cheese, then cut flakes of butter over that from that last 1 tablespoon.
Put it into the hot oven and cook for 1 hour, when the top should be really golden. Run a knife around the edge to be sure it is free of the side, then release the spring and remove the sides. You may be braver than I and use a very long metal spatula to neatly get the turta off the base and onto a serving plate. I opted for cutting pieces and sliding the knife under each one to remove it. As you ca see, in spite of thorough buttering, the base did leave some turta behind. Serve it warm, as a first course like this, or as my guests urge as the center to a meal.
Looks good ! I can see where the name came from.
Why did’nt you try it? Was there not enough for you?
I’ve never seen the precooked spinach here! But that’s alright, I wouldn’t mind the extra hassle to make this recipe, it looks like perfect for dish for these cold autumn nights.
@Scintilla:
I am on a low carb diet until April… rice not permitted.
@KC:
When it is sold, it is in the deli case near the various ‘made in the store’ ready foods. I find it at Coop and can’t see the difference from what I cook and what they cook. They also sell other greens as well. It costs a good bit more, but does save you the endless washing and the brief cooking.
Oh that does look good. I’ve been into savoury cakes and griddle cakes in the last weeks. This fits right in.
Warning! It is quite substantial, Snow.
…and pretty damn good it was too, I ate it, I should know!
This is definitely one recipe I\\\’m going to try. I absolutely love spinach although my supermarket doesn\\\’t have the already cooked stuff either. That\\\’s OK though. BTW, I saw those cookbooks advertised in the newspaper, but didn\\\’t buy them even though I was tempted. It sounds like they have lots of good recipes.
@Mary:
Recipes, yes, but also info on the region and a section on the DOP DOC products of the zone. Pretty good for €12.99. Every recipe also has wine selections or it tells you it doesn’t go with wine— what??? Doesn’t go with wine?
I am rewriting my 86 yr old grandmothers cook book for x-mas. I cam across her recipe for Turta passed down from my great grandmother. I tried making it once and botched it but looking forward to trying it again. Her recipe is a bit different (no spinach) but along the same lines as above. I had never heard of it until grandma, but glad to see there are others out there enjoying it too!
@Jeanine:
Lucky you! If you come across anything else interesting, chime in here, sì? I have to stumble across anything that isn’t central Italian one by one and figure out what to do with them.
Judith, could this be made ahead and served the next day, reheated? I\’m thinking of doing this for a lunch to celebrate my daughter\’s birthday. I won\’t have much time that morning to prepare multiple dishes, so I\’m hoping to find a primo I can prepare ahead of time.
Yes, KC. I cooked it and then rewarmed it in the oven. Because of all the eggs, you may find it sticks a lot if cooked twice– it sticks cooked once! OTH, if you have a microwave to reheat it– I don’t so that didn’t occur to me.
One of its good attributes is that it could be made ahead, then rewarmed, or it could be assembled and then baked the last hour before you wanted it.
I\’m silly! I remembered reading the recipe but not this part! You may flog me with a wet taglatelle.
Thanks, Judith, I do have a microwave.
I certainly don’t feel like flogging anyone and surely not with homemade pasta!