Torta

While in the rest of Italy, torta usually means cake in the dessert sense, in Liguria a torta is usually a filled savory pie containing vegetables and cheese. This sort of torta is technically a bread, but it usually appears on the Ligurian table either as an appetizer or as a main course. It typically is eaten at room temperature so that your palate discovers flavor rather than temperature. To make things more confusing, there are certain Ligurian vegetable preparations without doughs that also go by the name torta (you will find some of these beginning). The following recipes are for the type of pies that Ligurians fill with ingredients between a top and bottom shell in a round pie dish. There is only one difference between Recipe 1 and Recipe 2. The first recipe is for a pie with a layer of crust above the filling and another below. The second recipe is for a pie that has layers of dough between the filling as well.