Pumpkin (zucca) tart

When we first arrived in Florence last October, we experienced the fortunate misfortune of having a fair bit of confusion with our apartment rental. Under the false impression that one must have an address to apply for an Italian visa, we frantically arranged lodging for ourselves via the internet days before submitting our visa applications. Breathing a sigh of relief, we left our passports and all kinds of paper work with the Italian consulate in Portland (OR) towards the end of August, and figured we were pretty much all set. But approximately 2 days before departure, I received an apologetic e-mail from the rental agency explaining that there had been a small mix-up with dates and the apartment we reserved for the year wouldn’t be available until early November (a problem because we were due to arrive on October 5). In compensation for our inconvenience, they kindly offered us a bigger place in a more central location for our first month at the same price we were to pay for our original apartment. Not having much other choice and figuring the pictures they sent looked pretty good, we agreed to the change. Typically, though, all was not settled. The next morning, I was greeted by another apologetic e-mail saying that new apartment wasn’t available after all, but they had another even bigger place that was even close to our eventual apartment and thus would make moving simple. This place, they warned, might be a tad noisy because it was near the train tracks, but it was nevertheless very nice and worth much more than we would be paying for it. With some help from google maps, we discovered in dismay that the “near” the train tracks meant literally overlooking the train tracks and Campo di Marte, one of Florence’s major train stations. Attractive is not exactly the word one would use to describe the location (at least not based on photos from google street view), and to someone who is not a sound sleeper (me), train noise all night didn’t sound very appealing at all. So this time we wrote back asking if they had anything else.

In the end, we managed to secure a *very* small but cute studio in the Oltrarno area right by Porta Romana—one of the nicest and most “authentic” areas of Florence. The studio, it turned out, was not at all quiet and was really rather squishy for two people. But it was the perfect place to spend our first month in the city. Not only did our window look out on Porta Romana itself (not too shabby a view), we were right down the street from what we are more and more convinced is the best vino sfuso/small wine shop in Florence—Buca del Vino. We wandered in pretty much immediately upon arrival, and quickly became friends with the owners and their one employee. What exactly vino sfuso (basically, wine-on-tap) is, we shall explain better later. For now, suffice it to say that aside from providing us for the last year with excellent wine at an excellent price, the folks at Buca del Vino been our first go-to point for advice on Italian cooking, local food products, and typical recipes. Really, we became quite attached to both Buca del Vino and the Porta Romana area and were fairly sad to have to move come November, even if our new place had the advantage of an oven and a wee bit more space (and when we say wee bit, we really do mean only just a “wee” bit). After we relocated to the other side town, we ended up making the 45 minute trek back to Buca del Vino at least once a week because it didn’t take much experimenting to figure out they have the best vino sfuso around. And so, not surprisingly, we were thrilled to move back to the Porta Romana area last April (but that’s another story).

Anyway, on to the food. The real reason I’m writing is not to relate the woes of moving, but to talk about the most excellently tasty winter squash (or pumpkin) tart I made last week. This recipe for “pumpkin” tart (really, zucca tart, which translates inspecifically as squash) was one Antonella put up on the Buca del Vino’s website for Halloween not long after we rolled into town. We didn’t get around to making it the first time until Thanksgiving, and although it was excellent, we didn’t manage to make it a second time before winter squash season ended. A few weeks ago when the weather finally started to turn fall-like and autumn fruit and veggies (porcini, kale, winter squash, apples, etc.) reappeared at the market, I decided it was time to revisit the squash tart. So last Saturday, we went to the market in search of a piece of zucca gialla (yellow/orange winter squash), and came home with what was an impressively large hunk when you’re only cooking for two. Hacking of a small piece to make winter squash stuffed ravioli, I put the rest in the fridge to wait for Tuesday—the next day we had enough time to cook something complicated. Since insisted that we pick up some farina di cecci (chickpea) at the Coop because I was curious to see what it was like, I thought I would try using it instead of regular flour to make the piecrust. In spite of the usual pitfalls one experiences when making and rolling out pastry dough (avoiding adding too much water while still managing to make something that will actually stick together in a ball), and in spite of the crust being determined to stick to the bottom of the pan, the end result of this experiment was quite tasty. And it looked quite nice too before we made a big mess trying to get it out of the pan and on to our plates.

And so, here is the recipe (farina di cecci aside, it is more or less the same as what Antonella posted on the Buca del Vino site). The cheese types and quantities, she explained to me after our first pumpkin tart experience, are just a general guideline. Apparently, one can just use whatever leftover cheese one happens to have around. Now, if you’re like us, you’re not quite sure how leftover and cheese can appear in the same sentence. Besides the fact that we almost never buy enough cheese to have any leftover (that would require more disposable income that we currently have at our disposal), we like cheese way too much to allow it to sit in our fridge for long enough to qualify as “leftover” anyway. Not realizing the cheese varieties were just a rough suggestion and not having anything other than the usual pecorino romano around the house, the first time we followed the recipe fairly precisely and dutifully purchased the necessary cheese from our dry-goods purveyors at St. Ambrogio (who thought we were a bit nuts for asking for things in such small quantities). This time around, we were feeling too broke to afford much in the way of interesting cheese, so I went to our local mini city grocery store and got about 150 grams of the cheapest cheese I could find—fontinella—to augment our pecorino romano. While this tart is excellent no matter what cheese you add (as long as you use good squash/pumpkin), I would recommend following the original cheese suggestions if possible—the provolone piccante in particular adds an excellent spiciness to the filling.

Ingredients

For the crust:

250g flour

100g butter

half glass of ice water

1 egg yoke

a pinch of fresh sage

a small sprig of fresh rosemary

salt to taste

For the filling:

500g puréed pumpkin

80g coarsly grated parmigiano reggiano

100g gruyere (diced)

100g coarsely grated hard, spicy cheese, such as Italian provolone

1 egg

pinch of cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste

If starting with fresh pumpkin, cut the pumpkin into pieces and steam until soft. In the meantime, prepare the crust. Combine the flour, sage, rosemary, and pinch salt. Cut or blend the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse meal. Add the half glass of ice water and combine quickly, until the mixture begins to form a dough. Gather dough together and form into a smooth, compact ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Mash the cooked pumpkin (pealed) in a large bowl. Add the grated parmigiano and provolone, the diced gruyere, the egg, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Mix until ingredients are well combined.

Divide the pastry dough into unequal portions, setting aside the smaller piece (about ¼ of the dough). Roll out the larger piece, and place in a 24cm pie dish (well-buttered or lined with parchment paper). Shape the dough to create an edge of at least 2cm, cutting off the excess with a pastry cutter. Prick the dough with a fork multiple times to prevent swelling while cooking. Spread the pumpkin mixture evenly in the crust. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into thin strips (about 1 cm wide). Place the strips on top of the tart in a decorative pattern. Brush with egg yoke and bake in oven preheated to 180° for about 40 minutes.