Italian · Liguria

Torta di Erbe con Prescinsôa Ligure

A thin-crusted savoury tart from the Ligurian hinterland filled with seasonal wild herbs (chard, borage, pimpinella, wild leek), prescinsôa (local fresh curd cheese), rice and egg — baked until the olive oil pastry is crisp and golden. The filling relies on the prescinsôa's acidity to brighten the earthy herb mixture. Part of a tradition of erbe e formaggi pies that stretch across the western Ligurian hills.

ServesFour to six portions

Sourced0of 14 in BC

Cook

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For the olive oil pastry

300 g

plain flour

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

80 ml

extra-virgin olive oil

Your own market

80 ml

cold water

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1 tsp

fine salt

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For the filling

200 g

chard

leaves stripped from stems

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

100 g

borage leaves

young leaves only

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

50 g

pimpinella (burnet)

leaves picked

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

50 g

wild leek

trimmed and roughly chopped

Your own market

250 g

prescinsôa

or ricotta with 1 tsp lemon juice

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

80 g

short-grain rice

cooked until just tender, drained

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

eggs

beaten

Your own market

1 tsp

fine salt

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1 pinch

black pepper

freshly ground

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To finish

2 tbsp

extra-virgin olive oil

for brushing the scored top crust

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The Method

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the olive oil and work it in briefly with the fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cold water a little at a time and bring the dough together into a smooth, pliable ball — it should not be sticky. Divide into two portions, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. The dough is ready when it offers no resistance when pressed.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add all the herbs — chard, borage, pimpinella, wild leek — and blanch for 2 minutes only. Drain immediately and refresh under cold water. Squeeze with both hands until no further water can be extracted; the compressed mass should feel almost dry to the touch. Chop finely.

In a large bowl, combine the chopped blanched herbs, the cooked rice, the prescinsôa, and the beaten eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Mix until homogeneous. The filling should hold its shape briefly when lifted with a spoon before slowly settling — neither liquid nor stiff.

Heat the oven to 200 °C. On a lightly floured surface, roll the larger portion of dough to 2–3 mm thickness — no thicker. This is where the dish lives or dies: Ligurian tradition demands a crust that shatters rather than bends, and excess thickness robs it of that quality. Line a 28–30 cm tart tin, letting the dough overhang the rim. Spoon in the filling and spread evenly.

Roll the second portion of dough to the same 2–3 mm thickness and lay it over the filling. Press the edges together and trim the overhang. Score the surface in a crosshatch or diagonal pattern with a sharp knife, cutting through the top crust only. Brush generously with olive oil so that it pools into the score marks.

Bake on the middle rack at 200 °C for 30 minutes, then transfer to the bottom rack for a final 10 minutes. The tart is done when the top crust is deep golden and the scored lines have crisped into distinct ridges; the underside, checked by lifting one edge with a palette knife, should be firm and coloured rather than pale and soft.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature on a wire rack before slicing. The filling sets as it cools and becomes cleanly sliceable; the crust firms further. The tart is ready when a pressed finger meets resistance rather than softness at the centre.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Prescinsôa sourced directly from a Genoese latteria; wild-foraged pimpinella and borage; single-estate Ligurian extra-virgin olive oil, ideally Taggiasca, pressed for its delicacy rather than its intensity.

Estate — Prescinsôa from a specialist Italian delicatessen; cultivated borage and chard from a known grower; a good Ligurian or Provençal extra-virgin olive oil.

Market — Fresh ricotta with a teaspoon of lemon juice in place of prescinsôa; chard and borage from a farmers' market; any mild, grassy extra-virgin olive oil.

House — Supermarket ricotta with lemon juice; chard alone as the herb base; standard supermarket extra-virgin olive oil — the tart remains honest, though it loses the hillside complexity the prescinsôa provides.

Sensory Tests

◇Touch. The rested pastry dough offers no resistance and does not spring back when pressed — it is fully relaxed and ready to roll.

◇Touch. The blanched, squeezed herbs feel almost dry in the hand; no further water can be wrung from them.

◇Sight. The top crust is deep golden across its full surface; the score marks have crisped into distinct, defined ridges pooled with set olive oil.

◇Sight. The underside of the tart, checked with a palette knife, is firm and coloured — not pale or soft.

◇Touch. A finger pressed at the centre of the cooled tart meets firm resistance; the filling has set and the tart will slice cleanly.

◇Where it lives or dies. The pastry must be rolled to no more than 2–3 mm: a thicker crust bends where it must shatter, and the defining quality of the Ligurian tradition is lost.

V · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

Greek hortopita: olive oil pastry encasing blanched wild greens and fresh cheese — a structural and ingredient parallel to the Ligurian tradition (La Cucina Ligure di Terra, The Thread). Provençal tourte aux blettes from Nice: the closest French parallel — the same olive oil crust, Swiss chard filling, and fresh cheese, separated from the Ligurian version only by a border (La Cucina Ligure di Terra, The Thread). Sardinian pardula di erbe: herb and fresh cheese tarts from Sardinia representing the island expression of the same northern Mediterranean filling-in-crust tradition (La Cucina Ligure di Terra, The Thread).

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What to Pour

The pairing

El Silencio Espadin Mezcal

El Silencio Mezcal · Oaxaca — Mezcal

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

Agave spirit

From British Columbia

Fort Berens Riesling

Fort Berens Estate Winery · Lillooet

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

Wine

Without alcohol

GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

Non-alcoholic

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The whole pairing

VII · Origin & Lineage

Torta di erbe belongs to a continuous tradition of erbe e formaggi pies across the western Ligurian hinterland, documented in La Cucina Ligure di Terra — Erbe, Torte e Farinacei. The combination of olive oil pastry, blanched seasonal wild herbs, and local fresh curd cheese is inseparable from the geography of the Ligurian hills, where foraging for pimpinella, borage, and wild leek has shaped the cucina di terra for centuries. Prescinsôa, the region's characteristic fresh curd with a clean lactic acidity, is the ingredient that most precisely locates the dish: it is made nowhere else under the same name or character. The tradition shares deep structural roots with Greek hortopita and Provençal tourte aux blettes, pointing to a broader northern Mediterranean grammar of greens-in-crust that predates any single national cuisine.

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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.

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