Antica Sciamadda

Vegetable tarts

Pop into any bakery or cafeteria, and you will find their glass cases full of vegetable tarts - the light pastries incasing a quiche-like filling: eggs, cheese, and the vegetable of your liking. I love the zucca (pumpkin), and the carciofi (artichoke) is especially popular in the early spring when they are abundantly in season in northern Italy. The blistered oven in which they are baked at Antica Sciamadda is nearly two hundred years old, and still requires a constant feeing of hand-chopped wood for fuel.