I made this song to make people’s jaws dance. However, I don’t care for fried or cabbage-filled fish tacos. Though a little savory, not really for children. Servir con queso autentico mexicano, sour cream, pico de gallo, lettuce y limón.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 (9-inch) pie |
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup cornmeal
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, diced
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons cold water
- 1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
- 4 ounces feta cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ pound ham slices
- 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- ½ (16 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Mix flour, cornmeal, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat 2 eggs with 3 tablespoons cold water; stir into flour mixture until dough holds together. Add another tablespoon water if needed. Shape 2/3 of dough into flattened round; repeat with remaining 1/3. Wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or until firm enough to roll.
- In another bowl, combine ricotta cheese, crumbled feta, Parmesan cheese, 1 egg, parsley, basil, and oregano until well blended.
- Have a 9-inch springform pan ready. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger portion of dough into a 15-inch diameter circle. Carefully place in ungreased pan; press lightly against bottom and sides. Trim overhanging dough to 1-inch from pan rim.
- Scatter half of the mozzarella over bottom of crust. Next arrange half the ham slices in an even layer. Spread with ricotta cheese mixture then sprinkle with spinach. Cover with remaining ham slices. Press down gently to pack layers. Add red peppers in a single layer and top with remaining mozzarella. Press down again.
- Roll out remaining dough to 9-inch circle. Place over filling to cover. Moisten edges and seal crusts together. Crimp or flute edges. Crust should not extend above pan rim. Beat remaining egg and brush over crust. Cut several small vents in top crust for steam to escape.
- Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until crust is deep golden brown and pulls away from sides. Cool in pan on wire rack 45 minutes. Remove pan sides; cool completely. Cut into 12 wedges. Serve at room temperature.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 589 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 42 g |
| Cholesterol | 199 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 26 g |
| Saturated Fat | 20 g |
| Sodium | 1294 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 36 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve made this Torta numerous times. The cornmeal is too heavy and gritty, I use semolina flour and the results are perfect.
Delicious. Easier than it looked. Dough is very easy to work with.
This recipe is excellent. I made exactly as written with beautiful and delicious result. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
This tasted so much like a favorite cheese tart from Balthazar Bakery in NYC. The whole family loved it. For the sake of time, I used purchased pie crusts, which worked just fine.
Makes a great presentation and relatively easy to make.
We substituted semolina flour for the corn meal and it turned out well.
Second time making this!! It’s so tasty.
yes to changes, on place of Green peppers I used tomato’s, a bit more moister but great
Very good and fun to make. Like a few others, I used fresh spinach and cooked it up with some onion and garlic, and then pressed out the liquid prior to adding it. Otherwise, I pretty much followed the instructions and it came out great. Crust cooked perfectly and was suited to the dish. We ate it warm for dinner tonight (after resting about 20 minutes), and will eat it cooled tomorrow. I’m sure it will be good both ways. Tasty and filling. I think I might like to add a little gruyere to the mix of cheeses next time.
Came out awesome. Very impressive presentation when I brought to a recent party. Taste was also awesome. I personally left out the feta but will try next time.
I’m not much of a baker, but this looked good and I was inspired by watching baking shows. I mixed the dough in my food processor which made making the crust easier. I also don’t have a springform pan so I baked in two cake pans and stacked once cool. It worked great! Delicious and easier than expected, although a lot of clean up. Not an every week recipe, but worth the effort.
I don’t know if I’ll ever make this again, but I’m glad I attempted! I LOVE the cornmeal crust. It also looked very pretty. We froze a quarter of it.
I love this although I did take some liberties with the fillings – used wilted spinach, sundried tomatoes as well as roasted peppers. I have a seven inch spring form so I made the recipe and adjusted the proportion of fillings. I think I have enough dough and ricotta mixture to make a second pie for giving! I think the crust could use a little more salt than called for and I did not find the texture of the filling or crust gritty. I was concerned after seeing the reviews but used fine stone ground cornmeal and loved the result. Not sure if it mattered but I used wondra flour and it turned out great. Very pleased.
This was an absolute stunner. I heated up some leftover marinara to go with it, but it didn’t need it. I used regular sliced ham, but I cannot wait to make it with prosciutto. We loved this so much. Totally worth the time to make it.
Made this for the first time for Easter Brunch. I did make several minor adjustments. I used a 9 in. Spring form pan. I did not use the pie crust recipe. I wanted something basic. I put 2 cups of ricotta instead of 11/2, 2 eggs instead of 1 in the ricotta., 6oz. Container of Mediterranean flavored feta cheese. (Didn’t have to add any other seasonings.) I brushed the top of the pie with and egg white wash. It cooked for about 1 hr. 15 min. To perfection. It was a HUGE HIT ????????????
whole family loved it! Very easy to make substitutions with cheese, veggie and meat variations.
Too much ricotta, not enough ham, I’ll adjust the ratio next time, I’ll also add another egg to bind it more
Great recipe. Made a few layering changes based on feedback but the recipe rocks! Made the dough using Julia Child’s food processor method to make a pie crust and it worked perfectly. I did use semolina flour rather than corn meal as I prefer the less grainy texture. Also had beautiful swiss chard in the garden that needed to be picked that replaced spinach (sautéed with EVOO and garlic and then cooled, pressed dry, and chopped) . Did bottom layer of cheese mixture, layer of ham, more cheese mixture, chard, grilled red pepper strips, repeat with ham, cheese, chard, red pepper, then repeat one last time. Baking time and temp was spot on. Thanks for a great new addition to our recipe file. I’ll upload a picture of the final product.
Semolina flour instead of cornmeal and olive oil instead of butter. It makes it a smoother, less gritty feel to the mouth. I’ve made this recipe long before I saw it here and I do not put the top layer on. I cover it with a blend of mozzarella, provalone, and swiss cheese, ratio of 4/2/1 accordingly. I make my own italian sausage, and I also put pepperoni and zuchini in it. It was good the first time a made it in the 80’s and still is to this day. Thanks for reminding of this recipe I will make it soon.
I did not have a spring form pan, and used a straight sided cake pan. The torta came out great! the corn meal was very nice, we managed to eat it up quickly.
EXCELLENT