Porrata

My friend Kim called me the other day to talk about leeks.  She had gotten a recipe from her cousin and was trying it out for the first time.  The recipe was for a savory tart with a bread crust that Kim remembered their grandmother making many years ago. She said she'd bring me a slice if it turned out well.

A couple of days went by and I didn't hear from her.  I called and asked about the tart.  Kim said she wasn't happy with it; the crust wasn't like she remembered.  Then she emailed me a different recipe for a leek tart that she found in the Silver Spoon cookbook (Italy's answer to The Joy of Cooking, it came out in English for the first time about five years ago).  This one sounded just like a quiche, with cheese and cream mixed into the leek and egg filling, and a pate brisee crust.  I started looking on the Internet for more variations.  In Italian the dish is called  porrata or torta di porri (leeks are porri; interestingly, it's the same etymological root as puree and porridge which were both originally always made with leeks). I found other examples similar to quiches, and also some with yeast crusts, some with cheese, and some with prosciutto or pancetta in with the leeks.  I sent a couple of those back to Kim.  We noted that some of the reason behind the variety was probably local ingredients, with the creamy, soft-cheese, butter ones from the north, and the olive oil and bread types from the south (where her people are from).

After all that recipe-reading, I had to try making one myself.   Kim said that this one sounded closest to what she remembered.  I just now took it out of the oven and it's late at night.  I'm hoping Kim will be home tomorrow so I can bring her a piece.  With luck, it will be more like the one Nonna used to make.

Addendum:  You would think, this being the second post I've done in a year on the topic of leeks, that I would be a little more on top of the progress of the leeks in our own garden. 

They're as tall as I am.

This is what you get when you neglect to harvest your leeks: a haven for Whos.  Hey Horton, I think they're over here...