Polpettone Potato-String Bean Tart

This popular dish, called porpetton de faxolin in dialect, is irresistible. Polpettone in the rest of Italy means meat loaf, but in vegetable-crazy Liguria there is no meat in sight. This tart is wonderful as a snack, an antipasto, or a main course. For Ligurians it has the particular association of being the food that is packed to take along for hikes and country outings.

Ingredients

From Recipes from Paradise: Life and Food on the Italian Riviera, by Fred Plotkin.

This popular dish, called porpetton de faxolin in dialect, is irresistible. Polpettone in the rest of Italy means meat loaf, but in vegetable-crazy Liguria there is no meat in sight. This tart is wonderful as a snack, an antipasto, or a main course. For Ligurians it has the particular association of being the food that is packed to take along for hikes and country outings.

Makes one 12-inch tart

• 1 1/4 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled, cut into pieces

• 3/4 pound string beans, preferably slender

• 1 tablespoon Ligurian extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 clove garlic, green heart removed, minced

• 2 tablespoons fresh Italian (flat) parsley, minced

• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano or thyme, torn into small pieces

• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten

• 1/2 cup prescinseua or ricotta

• Fine sea salt to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1 cup fine unflavored bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set two pots of water to boil. Add a little salt to one of them. Then add the potatoes to that pot, cook for about 20 minutes, drain, and mash. In the other pot, cook the string beans for 12 to 15 minutes (thin ones less, thicker ones more). Drain, and then chop them coarsely. Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the garlic, cook for 1 minute, then add the string beans, parsley, and oregano or thyme. Cook for 2 minutes, until all of the flavors have combined. Remove from heat and let cool. Once the beans and the potatoes have cooled, combine them in a bowl.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano, eggs, prescinseua (or ricotta), salt, and pepper, and combine the ingredients well. Grease a 12-inch round glass ovenproof baking dish with a little olive oil. Sprinkle in some bread crumbs, but not too many (perhaps one-quarter of the total amount). Then spoon in the string bean mixture and smooth the top with a spatula. If you wish, you can score the top to form a pattern ñ Ligurians typically create diamonds. Top evenly with the rest of the bread crumbs. Bake for about 45 minutes and serve hot, warm, or cool.

Instructions