Italian Easter Pie – torta Pasqualina
This recipe for Italian Easter pie or ‘Torta Pasqualina’, is very popular all over Italy during the Easter period. It has its origins in Liguria.
Easter Monday in Italy, is traditionally a day for picnics and this pie is often one of the things taken along and is a perfect picnic food. This is a slightly simplified version of the traditional recipe, as it uses pre-prepared puff pastry.
Italian Easter Pie: Serves 6 – 10
- 500 grams puff pastry
- 500 grams swiss chard or spinach, stalks removed
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 80 grams of parmesan or pecorino romano (or a mixture of both)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram or parsley
- 10 medium eggs
- 300 grams ricotta, passed through a sieve to remove lumps
- 1 tablespoon single cream
- Olive oil
- Put the swiss chard, the onion and 2 tbsp of oil into a saucepan. Season with salt and people and cook over a medium heat until the chard is completely wilted.
- Allow to cool and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
- Chop finely and transfer to a bowl. Add an egg, 50g of cheese and the marjoram or parsley and mix well.
- In another bowl mix together the ricotta, the cream, 2 eggs and 30g of cheese.
- Roll out 2/3 of the pastry and use it to line an oiled cake tin.
- Make a layer with the chard. Cover with the ricotta.
- Crack 6 eggs, regularly spaced onto the surface.
- Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the pastry and use it to close the pie.
- Trim off the excess pastry and fold over and crimp the edges to seal.
- Brush with olive oil and bake at 180 °c for 45 minutes.
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