A culinary weekend trip – number 1: Torta Verde
On November 7th, the Green Pearls® team invited journalists and bloggers to the sustainable cooking school Vlet in Hamburg to cook together and present the green initiatives of our hotels. We say thank you to all who participated and contributed to this wonderful evening!
For this occasion, our partner hotels provided us with delicious recipes from their kitchens, which have a special connection to the accommodation’s histories or are typical for the particular regions. To share with you the lovely experience that we had while cooking, we will present you some of these recipes in our new series.
Torta Verde
Our first recipe comes from the Relais del Maro, which is situated in the Italian village Borgomaro in Liguria. The accommodation makes the atmosphere of this enchanted place accessible to its guests in an unusual way. Do you know the term “Albergo Diffuso”? It means that formerly vacant houses in the village are used for hotel rooms, so that guests live next door to the village people. This preserves old buildings and brings life to sleepy villages. The main building and the two additional houses located in the village center have been in possession of the Scalambrin family for several generations so that the family can tell many anecdotes and memories concerning each of the rooms. For the owner Elena Scalambrin, the Torta Verde brings back childhood memories as well, because her grandmother used to bake it for her. These days, Mama Piera cooks and prepares this delicious dish for her guests. We hope that you will have fun with this recipe!
For the dough
250 g plain flour
120 ml water
60 ml olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
For the filling
4 large zucchini
4 tbsp short grain rice
4 tbsp frozen peas
1 handful of basil leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
majorane
½ tsp salt
1 small onion
2 eggs
parmesan (as you like)
Preparation
1. Start by boiling the rice for about 10 minutes.
2. Wash and chop the zucchini finely, chop the onion and add both to a large bowl, also add the peas as well as the washed and chopped basil and fry them in a pan with a bit of olive oil.
3. When the rice has softened up, rinse it under cold water to remove the excess heat and starch and add it to the vegetables.
4. Make the dough by adding salt to the flour and mixing it with water and oil. Stir with a fork and then work with your hand.
5. Mix the eggs together with parmesan, minced majorane and a bit of salt and pepper. Add the mixture to the vegetables
6. Take a piece off the dough to make the top of the pie and stretch the remainder with a rolling pin on a pre-floured surface (this will prevent it from sticking to the counter and pin) and carefully place it in the pie dish. Prick small holes into it with the end of a fork.
7. Put the vegetable mix into the pie dish and flatten with a spoon.
8. Cut away the excess dough from the side.
9. Stretch the remaining dough to form the top and carefully transfer it on top of the vegetable mix.
10. Press the rims of the dough together to seal the pie.
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes at a temperature of 180 °C.
