Swiss Chard and Spinach Pie

This is a recipe from the fourteenth century given in the Menagier de Paris. It began life as a middle-class dish cooked in pastry and liberally flavored with ginger. For centuries herb or spinach tourtes were a staple peasant dish. Retif de la Bretonne, a writer, journalist and chronicler of the second half of the eighteenth century, refers frequently to these tarts or pies, which were served at the family table on his father's farm. Dishes of this kind are still found today in the regions from Bourgogne to Haute Provence.