Giulia Scarpaleggia's Vegetables the Italian Way had us earmarking recipes the moment we opened it. This ricotta and broccoli rabe tart, baked under a woven dough lattice, is the one we were most excited to share.
In Italy this kind of tart is called a torta salata. It's everyday cooking, the cousin to a galette: a flaky from-scratch pie crust, a generous filling of whatever leafy greens you've got, bound up with cheese and herbs. Giulia's version leans on broccoli rabe, fresh mint and parsley, and three cheeses (ricotta, ricotta salata, and Parmigiano). The dough rests overnight, which makes this the kind of thing you start one evening and bake the next. Beautiful enough for company. Sturdy enough to pack into lunch the day after.
We make ricotta most weekends, so a tart built around it is always going to be one of the first things we cook out of any new book. If you don't make your own, store-bought whole-milk works fine. Just give it time to drain so the tart doesn't get a soggy bottom.
Start with broccoli rabe. It's bitter and assertive, in season through the spring, and it's what gives this tart its personality. Boil it in heavily salted water until soft, about ten minutes, then drain and squeeze the water out by hand. Soften a sliced leek in olive oil with a clove of garlic. Once the leek is soft and the garlic is golden, fish the garlic out (it's there to flavor the oil) and stir in the chopped rabe. Cook everything together until the pan is dry. Skip the squeeze and your tart goes wet.
Mix the cooled rabe with three cheeses (ricotta for body, ricotta salata for the sharp salt edge, Parmigiano for depth) and a half-cup each of fresh mint and parsley, folded all the way through. Sheep's-milk ricotta is the call if you can find it; cow's-milk works fine. Pecorino Romano is a fine swap for ricotta salata. The herbs aren't a garnish. They're what brightens the filling.
The lattice looks intimidating, but it isn't. Roll two-thirds of the dough into the pan and fill it. The leftover scraps and the remaining third roll out into a rectangle and get sliced into half-inch strips. Half the strips lay across in one direction. The other half weave perpendicular, over and under. Trim the ends and brush the whole top with egg wash.
If you've made our Fiddlehead Tart or our Rhubarb Galette, this one's the same family. A woven top instead of a free-form fold. Easier than it looks.
Cut it into wedges and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, with a simple green salad and a glass of wine.
If you're new to making ricotta, here's how we do it, and our Fresh Italian Cheese Kit is what we use.
Excerpted from Vegetables the Italian Way by Giulia Scarpaleggia (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2026. Photographs by Tommaso Galli.
FarmSteady started with a simple idea: make projects like this easier to jump into.
$35.00
More about this kit →
A savory ricotta and broccoli rabe tart from Giulia Scarpaleggia's Vegetables the Italian Way, finished with a woven lattice.
Ramp butter is three ingredients and no cooking — the fastest way we've found to stretch a two-week ramp season into a year.
A handmade casarecce recipe from Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons of Pasta, featuring a silky butternut squash, sausage, and sage sauce.
Leave a comment