Tag: easter recipes Italy

Torta Pasqualina: from Liguria a piece of Easter

torta pasqualina

This traditional tart from Liguria area shows a tiny pastry stuffed with veggie, ricotta cheese, Parmesan and eggs. As the tradition wants, prepared the Easter day to start the long eating session. In the recipe you can use the artichokes or the spinach, the fresh ricotta and 6 entire eggs. A particular characteristic of this tart is that the eggs inside: they are entire inside. Why? So the top will have 6 “holes” with the eggs inside. The pastry of Torta Pasqualina simply are made with flour, extra virgin olive oil, salt and water.

Torta Pasqualina
 
Torta Pasqualina: meaning a typical Italian Easter recipe from Liguria!!
Author:
Recipe type: Appetiser
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 400 g of Flour
  • Water
  • 1 Kg of fresh Artchokes or Spinach
  • 6 Eggs
  • 100 g of Parmesan
  • 1 / 2 Onion
  • 500 g of Ricotta
  • 7 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Marjoram
  • Parsley
  • WINE: Golfo del Tigullio Vermentino (White Wine)
Instructions
  1. The dough:
  2. Put the flour on a table as a fountain, add salt, 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, water and mix all together until you obtain an elastic but firm dough, knead the dough for about 10 minutes more, then divide it in 6 parts and let them rest for 30 minutes covered with a towel.
  3. The stuffing:
  4. Clean well the artichokes and cut them, preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add them together with the onion cut in slices, put salt and the chopped parsley.
  5. Cook for about 15 – 20 minutes. Let them cool and place them in a bowl together with the ricotta, the Parmesan cheese, salt, black pepper and marjoram. Mix all.
  6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  7. Roll the 6 pieces of the dough to have a very thin pastry.
  8. On the bottom of a baking-pan put the first pastry and brush its top with virgin olive oil, put over it the second pastry and repeat the operation, and then put the third but do not brush with the oil.
  9. Now pour on it the mixture of artichokes and ricotta, makes 6 holes in it and inside put the 6 entire eggs.
  10. Cover the stuffing with the other three pastries always brushing the top.
  11. Close the pastry on the edges and bake the pie for 50 minutes or 1 hour, until the surface becomes brown.

 

Torta pasqualina, an Easter delikatessen

Torta Pasqualina is  a Ligurian torta. Pasqualina means “of Easter“, but the recipe calls for a dozen eggs! More spring-like than ever, and the pastry was a clear sign of spring, because eggs were seasonal not like today! The eggs production was therefore much lower, and in fact a hen could produce only 80 eggs per year, while today 300 plus eggs is the standard in modern hatcheries. So a sign of the time!

For the dough you will need:
8 1/3 cups (1 k) flour
4 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
Salt
Warm water

For the preparation:
Oil, for greasing the pan and the sheets
12 eggs
2/3 cup unsalted butter
Salt & freshly ground pepper

For the filling you will buy:
3 pounds (1.5 k) beet greens (chard)
1 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmigiano
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, minced
1 1/8 pounds (500 g) prescinseua (a mild cheese; use well-drained ricotta if need be)
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

The recipe of this torta can be traced back to the 1500s. Tradition indicates clearly that the puff pastry of the crust should be containing 33 tiny layers, to remind each year of Christ’s life. Modern recipes’ books generally quote only 8 to 6. The traditional recipe also indicates the cagliata or quagliata (prescinseua in Genova’s dialect), a soft cheese between yogurth and ricotta. Today we use ricotta instead.

How to make Torta Pasqualina?

Make a mound of the flour, pour in the oil and add 2 pinches of salt. Put in it enough warm water to work until you have a soft smooth dough. separate it into 33 small balls and let them rest, covered by a damp cloth.

Wash the beet greens, cut away the hard ribs, slice them into thin strips, and blanch the leaves in lightly salted water. Drain all well and stir in 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese and  marjoram.

In the meantime, put the ricotta or the cagliata on a sip to drain, or press it with a plate to remove the serum. When all has dried up, mix it into it with a bit of oil, flour and Parmigiano.

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C).

Take 13 of the dough balls and roll them out paper thin. Grease a pie pan and lay down the 13 sheets, brushing all except for the last one. Spread the filling over the dough, drizzle it with a little oil, and then spread the cheese mixture. Crack  12 eggs into them,season them with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of unsalted butter.

Take the remaining dough balls and roll them out, then lay them down over the pie, greasing them lightly top and bottom. Press the edges of the layers together and bake all for about 50 minutes. It’s good warm but much better when it has cooled.