Tourte: vegetable pie with olive oil pastry
The local name “tourte” translates in English as “pie”, meaning a dish with pastry both above and below. A tourte is made flat and wide rather than deep. I chose a metal quiche dish measuring 30cm in diameter.
The recipe comes from the mountainous countryside that surrounds Nice where it is popular in towns like Breil-sur-Roya and La Brigue. I was interested in its olive-oil pastry, useful if you have dairy-intolerant guests and don’t like margarine. I find that this pastry handles beautifully and rolls out nice and thin.
Recipes vary as to whether to include egg in the pastry (I don’t) and the fillings vary too (see Notes). There is usually egg and a bit of cheese, but a vegan version would work on condition the filling was not too watery. Many recipes include a bit or raw rice which cooks with the pie: extra rice might stiffen the filling if not using egg.
The pastry top must be snipped with scissors to allow steam to escape from the filling. Make a feature of the snips, with a nice pattern all over the tart.
The tourte will feed 6-8 depending on what you decide to pair it with. We like it with salads and a pud.
Ingredients
Pastry
300g plain flour
85g olive oil
1/8 tsp salt
about 100g cold water
Filling
500g courgette, peeled and diced
1 leek, washed and cut small
1 onion, peeled and chopped
100g chard leaf (or spinach), chopped
30g raw rice, well rinsed
50g grated cheese
1 egg
Method
Make pastry, adding only enough water to bring it together. Cover and leave on the counter top to rest.
Salt the courgette and leave to drain for about 10 minutes. Gently fry the onion and leek, and when soft, add the chard and cook.
Transfer the cooked ingredients to a bowl and leave to cool. Rinse the courgette and add, then add the egg, cheese and rice. Salt to taste, and leave half an hour or so for the flavours to combine.
Roll out ¾ of the pastry and line the tin. Spoon in the ingredients and even out. Roll out the rest of the pastry, place on top and seal by crimping or folding the edges, rather like a Cornish pasty.
Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Notes
The flavour is good but a bit bland using Gouda as cheese: a stronger cheese like Gruyère might add flavour. Feta might work well with spinach.
Some recipes use squash instead of courgette, in which case it needs to be minced or grated but not pre-salted. Some recipes have 400g cooked potato and no rice or egg.
Mix it up and make it yours!