Torta Pasqualina Recipe | Traditional Italian Easter Pie

Torta Pasqualina Recipe | Traditional Italian Easter Pie

from recipesfromitaly.com

Torta Pasqualina is the name of a traditional Italian Easter pie made with puff pastry, vegetables such as spinach, chard or artichokes, ricotta cheese and eggs. It’s a famous Ligurian dish, especially in the Genoa area, nowadays popular all over Italy. In Italy, every family has its own Torta Pasqualina recipe: there are those who use artichokes or spinach instead of Swiss chard; who add a little pancetta to the mixture; who prefer crescenza cheese instead of ricotta. Whatever you choose, the most important thing for an authentic Torta Pasqualina is that the eggs must be whole and baked inside the pie.

Ingredients

  • 370 g (13 oz) of chard
  • 140 g (5 oz) of ricotta cheese
  • 60 g (3/4 cup) of Parmigiano cheese
  • 30 g (1/3 cup) Pecorino Romano cheese
  • 2 sheets of puff pastry
  • 4 whole medium eggs
  • a pinch of fine salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. 1

    Wash the leaves of the chard or spinach carefully, based on what you have chosen as vegetables. Then place them into a large pot with a little water. Cover with a lid and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a bowl mix ricotta, Parmigiano cheese, Pecorino Romano cheese and 1 egg. Stir and mix all the ingredients. Add a pinch of fine salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

  2. 2

    Now drain the vegetables and squeeze them well with your hands to remove all the water. You can leave chard as they are or mince them, as you prefer. We’ve let them whole. Now add them to the mixture. Mix well to combine all the ingredients.

  3. 3

    Take a 8 inch round cake pan and line it with baking paper. Then line it with one of the sheets of puff pastry. Now fill it with the mixture of cheeses and chard. Make three small hollows in the vegetable mixture, evenly spaced. Place in each hole one whole raw egg.

  4. 4

    Finally, Cut a 20 cm (8 inch) circle out of the second sheet of puff pastry. Place it carefully over the top of the mixture. Close the pie, folding down the edges of the pastry lining to join up with the disk. Put in oven and bake at 180° C (350 F) for 50 minutes. Serve Torta Pasqualina still hot or let it cool to room temperature.