Stefan and Sylveli Hemmerle of German jewellery House of Hemmerle call their new collection a jeweled vegetable garden of delights.
To shine a new light on this line, they asked Tamasin Day-Lewis to create a dozen recipes to go with this jeweled vegetable garden, all brooch except for the 'carrots' earrings.
The jewels and the recipes share the stage in Delicious Jewels (Prestel, 2011)
The Breton in me had to choose the Artichoke brooch (Copper, white gold, purple sapphires) and Ricotta and Artichoke Torta as first in show.
Ricotta and Artichoke Torta Recipe:
Serves 6-8, Preheat oven to 200 Degrees C ? Gas Mark 6
This is a bit of a showstopper of a dish for a summer lunch, buffet or picnic: it can be served hot, warm or at room temperature and is really a savoury cheesecake, dense with ricotta and Pecorino, a confetti of summer herbs, and jewels of artichoke lurking in every slice. Please go to a good cheese shop and find fresh ricotta, not the tasteless industrial tubs, and a well-aged Pecorino Sardo for depth and complexity of flavour. Ready-prepared artichokes in oil or brine are not good enough for this dish; you need the flavour of the fresh ones.
You will need a 22 com springform cake tin to make the torta in.
Ingredients:
6 large artichokes, prepared and cooked in acidulated water at a roiling boil until tender
900g fresh ricotta
3 large organic eggs, separated
3 tbsp each chopped basil and parsley
1 tbsp each chopped rosemary, thyme and sage
3 heaped tbsp freshly grated Pecorino Sardo
25g unsalted butter
1 tbsp brown breadcrums torn from a stale loaf and dried until crisp in a low oven
Sea salt and black pepper
Directions:
When the artichokes are cool enough to handle, remove their chokes and slice the flesh into chunks, including as much of the stem as possible that is not tough to the knife.
Turn the ricotta into a large bowl and stir in the egg yolks, then the herbs and the Pecorino. Season well.
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir in the first spoonful; the mixture will feel pretty dense, but don't worry. Fold in the rest of the whites quickly and lightly, adding the artichokes at the end and folding them in evenly. Butter the springform tin generously, then add the breadcrumbs and press them to the base and sides of the tin.
Scrape the mixture into the tin and put on the middle shelf of the pre-heated oven.
Check after 50 minutes. If the top has turned golden brown and the torta has set when you shake the tin a little, remove it and place on a rack. cooking time can be anywhere from 50-60 minutes.
Rest on the rack for 10 minutes before unhinging the tin sides and turning the torta upside down onto a plate to serve. You may wish to sprinkle a little extra finely chopped parsley and basil over the top for their fresh greenness.
If you are serving the torta warm or at room temperature, don't turn it out onto the serving dish until it has cooled for 30 minutes. Serve with a feisty green salad: some watercress, avocado, finely sliced raw fennel, celery, a few mustard leaves, cos lettuce, whatever is in season, dressed with a good slug of peppery olive oil and some mellow, aged balsamic vinegar.
A good alternative is some heritage tomatoes simply quartered and dressed with a few drops of white wine vinegar followed by a sprinkle of sea salt.
(* Hemmerle ‘artichoke’ brooch from Delicious Jewels with Tamasin Day-Lewis, Copper, white gold, purple sapphires, Courtesy Hemmerle…Recipe from Hemmerle’s Delicious Jewels with Tamasin Day-Lewis, Recipe Photography by Simon Wheeler…Courtesy Hemmerle)