Torta d'Agli

Bring pot of water to boil. Place garlic in water and boil for 10 minutes. Remove and drain garlic. Chop garlic and combine remaining ingredients and turn into pie crust. Bake at 400°F for 45-60 minutes.

Notes:

• • I’ve reduced the number of eggs from what was noted in the original recipe, since I'm uncertain the average size of eggs that would have been produced in this time period. Large eggs appear to be the most likely size of egg a modern cook would keep on hand.

  • I chose a blend of ricotta and farmers cheese for this dish to give the cheese a firmer texture once baked. Barbara Santich indicates in her book “In spring there was soft, fresh cheese probably similar to today’s ricotta (in fifteenth-century Italy it was known as recocta, recooked); this was particularly important for torta fillings...”

  • I also choose to use butter instead of lard, other recipes from this same manuscript and similar in style also indicate that this substitution can be used (see Torta Commune).

  • The original recipe indicates to remove the torte from the pan after it is cooked. Consider leaving the torte in the pan for transportation purposes.

  • When I first made this torte and gave everyone an 1/8 of a full pie, a number of people experienced stomach discomfort. When people had smaller portions, there were no complaints of stomach discomfort.

Works Referenced:

Libro de arte coquinaria, Maestro Martino de Como, Digital version: Valeria Romanelli, 7/2004. http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/martino2.htm

The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Translated by Luigi Ballerini, Jeremy Parzen, Stefania Barzini, University of California Press, 2005

- A translation of the work of Maestro Martino of Como, 15^th century

The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy; Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban, & Silvano Serventi, translated to the English by Edward Schneider; The University of Chicago Press, 1998