Savory tart filled with escarole
( Torta salata con scarola )

Scarole tart recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare tart shell.
  Prepare your dough with wholemeal flour, 1 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt, sugar, fresh yeast and the quantity of warm water that is necessary.
  Link to pizza dough with fresh yeast below.
• - In the meantime ...
  ... clean and wash escarole, boil it in boiling salt water for about 10 minutes and drain very well.
• - Prepare tart filling.
  Put sultanas, pine nuts, black olives, capers, anchovies and 2 teaspoons olive oil in a pan.
  Add escarole too and let your filling cook on gentle flame, stirring often.
  Turn off the stove only when cooking juice is well reduced and anchovies are well melted.
  Season to taste with salt only if necessary.
• - When your dough is doubled, assemble escarole tart.
• - Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
• - Grease a 24cm (9 1/2in) round baking pan with remaining olive oil.
  Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface.
  Line bottom and sides with the dough, allowing it to flow over the edges.
  Prick bottom with a fork and pour in the your filling.
  Refold the excess of dough over the surface and bake for about 20 minutes or until your tart is golden.

Just before serving

• - Remove baking pan from the oven and let it rest, 5 to 10 minutes.
• - Serve your escarole tart warm.

Note

Tips

• - Escarole tart is a traditional recipe from Campania, Naples. Neapolitans use to eat this savory tart during Christmastime and in winter. I changed the doses of its ingredients to reduce the amount of calories and fat.
• - The richest version could be made with shortcrust pastry for savory recipes. Link to the recipe below.
• - Escarole is also known as Batavian endive, scarola, prickly lettuce ...
• - Generally I never cover the filling with a second layer of dough as it happens in the original version, to reduce the amount of carbohydrates.

Menu planning

• - You can cube this tart and serve the bites as appetizers. They are perfect in an Italian antipasto platter to accompany salami or fish carpaccio.
• - Another idea is to prepare it for a meal, buffet style.
• - Think of it for your family dinner. In this case it serves 4.

Useful links for this recipe

• - You should be interested in rich shortcrust pastry recipe.
• - Want to consult the original Neapolitan recipe for escarole pizza?
• - More details on making pizza dough with fresh yeast?

Healthy eating

• - I often prepare the tart with escarole as alternative dinner.
  Remember it is good practice to make sometimes vegetarian dishes in the weekly schedule of your family menu. First of all to change, that is a fundamental rule. And then not to eat too much meat.
  In reality, this tart is not an example of vegetarian food for the presence of anchovies in oil, but you can safely delete them from the list of ingredients.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Savory tart filled with escarole "?

My husband and I generally match Fiano di Avellino (white wine from Campania - Italy) to this escarole tart.