It's in Lidia's Italy cookbook, Laurie, but I can't get to it until much later tonight. The Apple Torte with Bread Crumb and Hazelnut Crust. (Torta di Miele di Carnia)

Oh how I envy you having that book! Have you made the torte, is it any good?

I bought a bag of ground hazelnuts and have been keeping them in the freezer forever trying to use them up! And I never seem to be short of stale bread, lol! Plus I get apples left over from functions at the college. That's what I love about "peasant-style" cooking, the ability to make something yummy out of the scraps. Gnocchi is how you use up leftover mashed potatoes, and minestrone is how I clean out the fridge every Sunday! Actually that sounds like a gourmet italian meal--minestra, gnocchi with my freezer pesto, and apple torte for dessert, lol!

That really does sound like a great dinner, Laurie, LOL, and all leftovers from the frig! Haven't made the torte yet, I have quite a few recipes bookmarked in this book that I'd like to make. Haven't gotten to any yet. She's a little wordy on a lot of the recipes, and I've made recipes from her other books that all turned out really well. Here's the apple torte recipe, let me know how it turns out! Looks good!

Apple Torte with Bread Crumb and Hazelnut Crust (Torta Di Mele Di Carnia)
Lidia Bastianich (Lidias Italy)

Apples grow well in the Carnic Mountains, in the northern part of Friuli, and are used in many desserts. This delicious double-crusted tart reflects the deep-rooted frugality of cooks in this tough mountainous terrain. The crust is made with bread crumbs taken from stale bread, probably because of the scarcity of white flour and the time it takes to make a refined pastry dough. But the results, in the Carnic spirit, are delicious.

Makes a 9-inch tart, serving 8 or more
For the bread crumb crust:
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1 1/2 cups fine dry bread crumbs
6 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter, plus a bit for the tart pan
flour for rolling out the dough

For the apple filling:
2 pounds (or a bit more) tart, firm apples such as Granny Smith
1/2 cup sugar, or more to taste
1 cup hard (fermented) apple cider or dry white wine

Whipped cream or sour cream or ice cream or powdered sugar (optional)

Recommended Equipment:
A wide, heavy-bottomed 3- or 4-quart saucepan, with a cover
A 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom
A pizza stone or oven tiles, if available

To make the pastry dough, chop the toasted hazelnuts into small bits, about the size of barley or rice grains, using a chef's knife, or pulse in a food processor, in short bursts to avoid pulverizing. Mix the chopped nuts with the bread crumbs, sugar, and grated lemon zest in a big bowl.

Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan just until the butter melts. Pour over the dry mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Let the very sticky dough sit in the bowl for about 15 minutes, so the liquids are absorbed by the crumbs. Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, enclose it, and press into a disk. Refrigerate the dough for an hour or more, until it is quite firm.

To make the filling, peel, core, and slice the apples; you should have 6 to 7 cups of slices. Spread them in the saucepan; pour the sugar and the cider or wine on top; cover the pan, and set it over medium heat. Cook covered for about 10 minutes, gently turning the apples every few minutes, as they wilt and release their juices. Uncover the pan; adjust the heat to keep the liquid perking and slowly reducing. Turn the slices over frequently but carefully, so they stay intact. When the liquid has all evaporated and the apples are soft and nicely glazed, turn off the heat and let the apples cool.

When you're ready to form the pastry and bake, arrange a rack in the middle of the oven (covered with a baking stone or tiles, preferably) and heat it to 375°. Lightly butter the tart ring and removable metal bottom.
Cut off a third of the chilled disk of dough for the top crust, and set it aside. On a well-floured surface, roll the remaining two-thirds of the dough to a 12-inch-diameter circle, almost 1/4 inch thick, more like a cookie dough than a pie crust. Flour the rolling pin and work surface as needed to prevent sticking. Lift the round and lay it, centered, on the tart pan. Press the dough down so it lines the pan bottom and sides, and trim the edges so there's an even 1/2 inch of dough over the rim of the tart ring, all around.

Spread the cooled apple slices on the bottom crust, in an even layer. Roll out the smaller piece of dough into a 9-inch round, the same thickness as the first. Lay it loosely over the filling, and trim the outside edges to fit snugly inside the bottom crust, covering the apples like a lid. Fold the overlapping bottom crust over the top piece, and pinch and smooth the dough layers together, sealing the apples inside.

Place the torta in the oven, and bake for an hour or longer, until the top crust is deep golden brown and the outer crust has separated slightly from the side ring. The top crust may crack open, and you should be able to see the apple filling bubbling inside. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool.

When the torta has cooled and the crust has firmed up, remove the side ring. If you wish, use a long metal spatula to separate the bottom crust from the metal disk, and slide the torta onto a board or cake plate. Serve cut in wedges, warm with ice cream, or completely cool with powdered sugar and some kind of cream.

Thank you SO MUCH! I can't wait to try this. Actually I am having visitors in two weeks so I might just serve this for dinner. It seems to take me forever to carve out quality kitchen time these days!

I really appreciate that you took all that time to type out those wonderfully detailed instructions. Thanks again Carol!

Do you have an "e" on the end of your name?

Well that answered a lot of questions for me! The
Passatelli recipe makes what we kids called Worm Soup
that my Grandma Ciaffone made for the first course at
Easter.

You're very welcome, Laurie, it was no problem, I scanned it to a Word doc and then just had to go over the ingredients to make sure it was right, some things don't scan right into Word, instead of numbers and fractions it comes up with weird stuff sometimes.

Nope, no "e" but I did want one when I was little!

cciaffone, LOL, worm soup!

The matzah ball comment made me wonder - would these work for Passover with matzah meal instead of bread crumbs?

I may have to give both a try.

ROFL CCiaffone! I did notice the soup looked a little "earthy." :)

Now I realize those noodles would not work at Passover unless you were a vegetarian, since they call for parmesean cheese in the dough. They wouldn't even work any other time for someone who kept kosher, unless they were vegetarian. Since I'm vegetarian and not kosher, I usually don't think about these issues. I do occasionally eat meat like I did with the soup and noodles this week.

Use stale bread instead of noodles though, and you have something like riboletta or whatever that bread soup is called.

It is pretty easy to make them work for kosher. I was planning to use vegetable broth instead of the chicken broth. My son is vegetarian so we don't eat meat that often. Being vegetarian makes Passover more difficult for him because all the foods that are off our menus during Passover are plant origin ones so I'm always looking for things that help with a more varied diet during Passover.

I expect that one could also find something else to replace the Parmesean cheese if one wanted to make the noodles meat instead of milk.

I love Lidia..my favorite recipes of hers is Pasta Fagioli Soup and Clams Casino both are wonderful! I was disappointed in her restaurants in NYC although Id go back I wouldnt kill myself to get their.