Potato and Greens Torta

Often we end up with leftover greens of various types that we don't know what to do with and while a salad would use them up, sometimes it just doesn't call to us. However, if that happens again, I'll have to keep this Potato and Greens Torta we made for dinner in mind. This torta is like a giant bowl of mashed potatoes, except made in pie form with lots of intriguing twists and turns! After looking over the recipe, it almost read to me like it was going to be a tad on the bland side, so I felt the urge to make some changes as I went along.

Getting the potatoes prepared was first on the agenda - since we were using small Yukon golds, I didn't bother with peeling or cutting them up. After letting them simmer in salted water to become tender, we drained off the water and let them cool for a few minutes. While we typically don't discard the peels in our everyday mashed potatoes, the recipe called for using a potato ricer to get the fluffiest texture and this required removing their coating. Why not do this before hand? Well, after cooking them this way, the skins cleanly peel away without much effort... faster than using a utensil to do it anyway!

While the potatoes were resting, I took a mixture of greens and tossed them into a skillet lined with olive oil that we infused with fresh garlic and crushed red pepper. Don't be afraid to play around with the greens if this sounds like something you might enjoy though! We added what the recipe called for... torn romaine, fresh spinach and arugula - I bet greens like Swiss? chard or kale would work well too. Once they had wilted, we took them out of the skillet and finely chopped so they would disperse well.

Back to the potatoes! After I squished them through the potato ricer, I tossed in the wilted greens, a little milk to loosen things up, fontina cheese, Asiago cheese, a couple eggs to bind (which also lift up the heavy potatoes) and a few shakes from our jar of cayenne pepper sauce. You'll want to season this well with salt and fresh ground black pepper too - if you are afraid of adding too much, you could hold back on the eggs, mix in everything else and then taste for seasonings before going ahead with the eggs. Before scooping this into the pie plate, we coated it with cooking spray, then dusted it with breadcrumbs. While it isn't nearly enough to form a "crust", I did find it ended up helping get the pieces out in one fell swoop!

After baking this torta, the top is showered in Asiago, then set aside to let the potatoes firm up before serving. I'm glad I went ahead and fiddled with the ingredients (the Asiago inside, crushed red pepper, an additional garlic clove and shot of cayenne pepper sauce) as I thought it could have still used some help. Maybe adding extra sharp cheddar to the filling and tossing in a bit more arugula for bite? It was creamy as advertised though (go potato ricer!) and could be a great side or even main dish, if you are willing to work in a little extra zing!

Recipes
Potato and Greens Torta