The Easter recipe is a savory pie made with very healthy ingredients: the torta pasqualina (Easter pie), filled with spinach, ricotta, and eggs. Although it is eaten all over Italy, any day of the year, it is a recipe originating from Liguria, and it was considered a must for Easter picnics, since it is just as good, if not better, cold than freshly made, and it is easy to transport from one place to another in a basket. In reality, it seems that the authentic Genoese torta pasqualina is filled with artichokes, but who knows why, the versions that replace them with spinach, chard, or a mixture of both are infinitely better known.
The one I made for the recipe photographs is filled with spinach, for the sole and very important reason that I have to eat it myself and spinach is my favorite vegetable.
By the way, at the end of the recipe, I have written a note where I indicate how to carry out a couple of steps more simply than in the recipe. Only the appearance and texture of the pie are slightly modified, but it is just as delicious. In case you have less time available to prepare the pie, are feeling lazier, or whatever the reason.
Happy Easter!
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The card
- Dough:
- 500 g pastry flour
- 250 ml water
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- Filling:
- 500 g fresh chard or spinach
- 400 g cow's milk ricotta
- 5 eggs
- Half an onion
- 50 g grated Parmesan
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Nutmeg (optional)
- Black pepper
- Salt
- Marjoram or fresh oregano
- Mix the flour, oil, salt, and water and knead until you obtain a homogeneous dough.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal balls and let them rest under a cotton cloth for half an hour.
- Boil the spinach with water and salt to taste, drain well, and chop very finely.
- Slowly poach the half onion cut into small squares with a tablespoon of butter.
- Sauté the spinach with the onion and half a teaspoon of marjoram or fresh oregano.
- Put the ricotta in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and add the grated Parmesan and, if desired, a touch of nutmeg. Mix everything well with a fork.
- Flatten each of the dough balls with a rolling pin. They must be very, very thin.
- Place the first sheet of dough in the mold for the pie. (mold of about 24 cm in diameter approx. If it is a little larger or smaller, it works just as well).
- Brush the bottom and sides of the first layer with a little oil.
- Place the second sheet of dough on top of the other.
- Form a first layer with the spinach, covering the entire bottom of the mold.
- Place the ricotta on top, as a second layer.
- Mark 5 cavities distributed over the ricotta with a spoon.
- Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
- Delicately place each of the yolks into the 5 holes marked in the ricotta.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and add a final layer of filling to the pie.
- Cover the pie with the third sheet of dough.
- Brush the entire surface of the pie with oil.
- Place the last layer of dough.
- Fold the edges of the dough that stick out of the mold inward to make the crust of the pie.
- Brush the surface of the pie with a little more oil.
- Bake the pie for one hour at 180 degrees.
