A vegetable tart fit for a carnivore

I know it looks kind of like a pizza from this angle, but it's not.

I was sitting in the kitchen the other day listening to my usual round of NPR podcasts and out of nowhere something popped into my head: pie. Before I knew it I was digging my hands into butter and flour and making some pâte brisée. I wasn't sure at that point what it was going to turn into, but I figured that by the time I pulled the rested dough out of the fridge I would have an idea. I remembered seeing a recipe in Gourmet last winter about a mushroom and farro pie. Conveniently, I had farro and some dried porcini mushrooms on hand. I love it when dinner happens like this - you know, when you try to make something out of the ingredients you have in the kitchen. It's like putting together a tasty puzzle. Projects are fun.

I cooked the farro, soaked and drained the porcini then opened up the fridge to see what else I could throw in. This is what I scrounged up: roasted red peppers, onions and garlic from dinner the night before, a little red sauce I made for a pizza 2 days prior, a little passata (tomato puree) that needed to be used up and some chopped celery leaves. I combined all of this with the farro and mushrooms and then added a little balsamic vinegar, some of the porcini liquid, salt, pepper, a touch of cocoa and cinnamon, and an egg. After resting the dough for a few hours I pressed it into a pan and par baked it. The the filling went in and I showered the top of it with some parmiggiano.

I popped the tart in the oven, put on a Fresh Air podcast, poured a

glass of red wine, grabbed a People magazine (it's my thing, let it go) and retired to the couch. At any point during all of this did I look for the Gourmet recipe? Umm, no. Here's where I should explain something about myself.

I rarely follow recipes, meaning actually measuring ingredients out and following rules. I tend to follow recipes more when I'm baking, but I have to admit that even then I sometimes make little changes. My usual thing is to just take ideas from a recipe and go with it. Also, I have an obsession with trying to use up what's in my fridge and cupboard - I'm an obsessive recycler. So I'm all for substituting ingredients and spices whenever I need to. My aversion to rules is working to my advantage right now while living in Italy. I'm convinced that Italians think some rules are specifically made to be broken. Stopping at red lights, waiting in lines, customer service...Italians hate all of these things. Thanks to my ancestors I have that same rebellious streak in me. I'm sure it can be traced back through my bloodline. But that's neither here nor there.

I served the tart with a simple fennel and celery salad: fennel and celery sliced very thin with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and zest and some more chopped celery leaves (a Bittman inspired recipe you can find here). The tart was so filling and honestly tasted meaty, and that's not a word I throw around lightly. I NEVER say things like that about vegetarian dishes, but this was something special.

Here's a link to the Gourmet recipe Mushroom and Farro Pie. It looks delish.