Typical Easter Italian recipe: Torta Pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina is a typical recipe Italians prepare for Easter. In fact, it means “Easter cake”.
Originally it was prepared in Liguria. It is a pie filled with spinach or bieta with ricotta cheese, Parmigiano, eggs and - for those who are not vegetarian - also little peaces of sausages.

The original recipe uses a particular pastry made only with flour, water and olive oil, and you would have to prepare 12 layers of pastry. It also uses in the filling whole eggs in their shell, which become hard boiled with cooking. We use a simpler and more contemporary version, equally delicious, with a type of shortcrust pastry.

Ingredients - serving 8 people

For the pastry
300g of Flour
2 table spoons of cold water
1 egg
150 gr of butter
salt


For the filling
1 Kg of spinach (or bieta- chard)
2 garlic cloves (if you like it)
3 eggs (add 5 more eggs if you want to put them whole in the filling!)
150 g of Parmigiano (grated parmisan cheese)
500 g of Ricotta
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Marjoram


PREPARATION

Dough:
On a wooden board, or on the table, place the flour, make a well in the centre, add the salt, extra virgin olive oil, water and cold butter cut in little dices. Slowly mix the liquid with the flour and prepare the dough kneading it just the necessary time to prepare it. Otherwise you can use the food processor and do it in 3 minutes. Don’t overwork it!
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Filling:
While the dough is in the fridge, prepare the filling.
Clean the spinach or the chard, boil them (don’t overcook them!) and drain them well!



Cut the sausages in little pieces and put them in a pan with the olive oil, and let them cook for 4-5 minutes, gently stirring from time to time.



Add the vegetables and put everything in a bowl with the ricotta, parmigiano, 3 eggs, salt (if you have used sausages then add very little salt, as the sausages contain already a lot of salt!), pepper, marjoram and mix it well till smooth.





Take the dough from the fridge, divide it in two pieces, one a little bigger than the other. Roll out the bigger piece on a floured surface with a rolling pin, then cover with it a baking (springform) tin (24 cm diameter).



Fill with the filling. If you like make 5 holes in the filling and in each hole put one egg, taking care not to break them!






Now, cover the filling with the other piece of rolled out dough as shown in the picture and close the pastry with your fingers.

Brush the surface with a egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk.



Put in the preheated oven at 180°C and bake for 50 minutes (or until the surface becomes golden).



You can eat it hot or cold. It will be delicious!

Buona Pasqua!

Celebrating Women's Day

Dear All,

In Italy every year on 8th March we celebrate with a national festivity 'la giornata della donna' (women's day). On that day, it is usual to give women a flower called 'mimosa'. You'll find here the recipe for the Mimosa cake, also used to celebrate this festivity. It’s very easy to prepare and very impressive!

You may cook the Pan di Spagna (sponge cake), or you can buy it.


The ingredients (serving 6) are:
For the Pan di Spagna
150 g sugar
4 eggs
75 g flour (00)
75 g cornstarch or potato starch
A pinch of salt
For the filling
4 yolks
4 tbs sugar
2 tbs flour (00)
2 tbs cornstarch
Vanilla (or vanilla flavour)
½ l milk
150 ml whipped cream
Lemon zest
100 g chocolate (in little pieces)


Preparation
To make the Pan di Spagna, whisk eggs and sugar in a mixer until very very fluffy (8-10 minutes).
Then gently fold in, little by little, the flour and potato or corn starch, sieved together, with a spatula.
Put the mixture in a cake tin (22cm) that have been buttered and floured.
Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes at 180°C
Once cooked, allow the cake to cool.
Then cut the cake in 3 parts and keep apart the second one.


Using a small brush soak the cake with Marsala (or another sweet wine or rum or… whatever you have at home. If children are going to eat the cake, soak it with fruit juice (pineapple juice will be perfect!)

In the meanwhile, prepare the filling
Prepare a crema pasticcera (custard) mixing the 4 yolks with the sugar, the flour, the cornstarch, the vanilla and add the cold milk.
Put in a saucepan, heat (remember to keep a low temperature) and whisk until thick. The custard should not boil!!



Allow the custard to cool and then make the Chantilly cream, by mixing (very gently!) the whipped cream with the custard.


Spread a layer of Chantilly cream on top of the cake, spread it with the chocolate in little pieces and cover with the other slice of cake.

Cut the second layer of cake into dices (0.2 - cm in size.. more or less)


Coat the outside of the cake with the remaining cream and spread the cake dices over the top of the cake to cover the entire cake.

Spread the cake with icing sugar (use a sieve!) and put the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes

Now.. enjoy it!