Category:
Fresh pastries and bakery, biscuit, confectionary and pastry products;

1. Product name:
Torta di verdure

2. Other names:
Torta coi becchi lucchese

3. Short product description:
It’s a round cake with a base similar to shortcrust pastry and a vegetable (chard), bread, sugar and egg filling. The filling remains green even after baking. Even if chard is one of the main ingredients, the tart is sweet, not savoury.

4. Production area:
Throughout the countryside of the province of Lucca

5. Production status:
r disappeared r at risk r active

6. Production process:
Bread (crumb only) is soaked in milk and drained, then placed in a bowl with raisins that have been rinsed and soaked in vin santo, candied fruit and sugar. Chard (boiled without its stem for 30 minutes then blended and fried in a tablespoon of butter), beaten eggs, a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon are added. The shortcrust pastry is made with flour, egg, butter and leavening agents. It’s mixed and rolled out into a 0.5cm sheet, then placed onto a greased and sugared tray. The edges are crimped into a crown, which rises above the filling (the edges are cut at 3cm intervals and the strips folded into the shape of a diamond). They’re brushed with egg and a handful of pine nuts are tossed into the filling. It’s baked at 180°C.

7. Materials, equipment and premises used for production:
A bowl, ladle, 24cm diameter pie tin, oven.

8. Notes on traditionalism, homogeneity of spread and persistence of production rules over time:
The tart is found in bakeries and pastry shops all over the city and countryside. Individuals also make it, often for Santa Croce or for parties organised after the annual grape harvest. It’s, in truth, an old tart made for feasts and picnics. The ingredients are those that any country home always had on hand.

9. Production:
The tart is made by bakeries and pastry shops in the city and countryside, even if the largest proportion is made for individual consumption.