Since my son’s homeschool plan includes Italian, we signed up for the weekly email from Dianne Hale, entitled, “La Bella Lingua – Becoming Italian Word by Word.”
This week, we learned that January 6th, the traditional day of Epiphany, is a huge celebration in Italy.
“The final feast is l’Epifania, on January 6, which commemorates the arrival of i re magi, the three kings who followed the bright Christmas star (stella cometa) to bring gifts for Baby Jesus (bambino Gesu).”
Since we are busy on the 6th, we decided to celebrate a day early with an Italian meal (which really isn’t all that unusual at our house), and chose a vegetable torta (which is unusual for our house). We learned torta is singular and torte is plural. We only needed una torta, so I gathered just enough delicious veggies, chopped and roasted them, and then assembled the layers.
Not remembering my springform pan had the latch fly off the last time I used it, (hmmm . . . it was only 20 years old) I made do with a deep cake pan (10×4) lined with foil and coated with non-cook spray.
I decided to add rigatoni, and layered peppers, onions, squash, carrots, sweet potato, spinach and my favorite, beets.
Okay, the beets were on the bottom, and made a huge mess, although it was a beautiful, deep red mess. Next time, eggplant will be on the bottom. The peppers on the top looked pretty, although my son thought it was salmon. Um, no.
In between the layers of vegetables, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese and spread pesto for two of the layers. Three eggs beat together and seasoned with Italian seasonings were poured between the layers to help it set. Baked at 400° for 30-40 minutes, then cooled for 30 minutes before flipping over, it was . . . La maggior parte dei vegetali deliziosa torta che hai mai mangiato! (The most delicious vegetable torta you’ve ever eaten!).
And although I could have had just the torta for a main course, I felt sorry for the meat-lovers and gave them some baked chicken to go with the torta. When my son saw the final presentation, he looked shocked and said,
“Seriously? A cake made of nothing but vegetables?” Oh, the torture of a torta.
(But he had two servings).
Buona L’Epifania to you!
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If you want to take a look at Diane Hale’s La Bella Lingua, which we use to supplement the language class, click HERE.