Years ago on my first trip to Italy, we stumbled across a quaint little bistro where the specialty of the house was “lettuce ravioli”. Lettuce? Ravioli? Merely to satisfy our curiosity, we ordered a dish with low expectations. Instead, we ended up eating one of the most memorable meals of our lives, fighting over dish after dish of this light, airy pasta covered with a spring green sauce.
All of which is to say, never under-estimate the power of lettuce.
And though terrines may seem a bit dated, the mixture of eggs, lettuce (I used some leftover gourmet mix with curly red lettuces, spinach and butter lettuce) and cheese make an easy-to-prepare-ahead dish that’s delicious cold.
Trentino Terrine
from Ramona Crinella
This dish is very light and makes a special brunch dish. And no, the addition of four cups of lettuce is not a mistake.
Recipe
1/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
6 eggs
1 cup cream
few grates of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated pepper
4 tablespoons flour
4 cups lettuce, washed, dried thoroughly and shredded
butter
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Put eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper, nutmeg in a bowl and beat with electric mixer while adding flour a little at a time.
Fold in lettuce and cheese. Butter a loaf pan and put in mixture.
Bake until a silver knife comes out just about clean, about fifty minutes. (It will cook a little more after it comes out of the oven.)
Let cool a little and unmold.
Garnish terrine slices with the following sauce.
2 large onions
4 good sized tomatoes
2 bell peppers
2 cloves garlic
Freshly grated pepper
salt to taste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
olive oil
Cut peppers in half and put on grill or under broiler until skins are blackened.
Put a layer of oil in bottom of roasting pan.
Peel onions, cut in half and put in pan, along with cored, halved tomatoes.
Add salt and freshly grated pepper.
Roast in 450 degree oven for twenty minutes.
Add garlic and continue roasting, turning occasionally until skins are browned. Do not let garlic get too brown.
Put peppers in a plastic bag and let cool.
Remove peppers from bag.
If you are using as a sauce keep the pepper juices for thinning.
Remove skins and seeds and put into blender along with other ingredients.
Blend until a paste.
Correct seasonings.
If using as a filling or spread remove and serve.
If using as a sauce add pepper juices and blend.
Serve this over a slice of the terrine.
You can also use this sauce many other ways.