TORTA PASQUALINA

TORTA PASQUALINA image

Number Of Ingredients 18

Ingredients

For the pastry
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) white flour
Salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the filling
1/2 Kg (1 lb 2 oz) cleaned, boiled and
drained Swiss chard, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
2 teaspoons dried parsley
150 g (5 oz) grated "Parmesan"
10 fresh eggs
300 g (11 oz) "ricotta" cheese
60 ml (2 fl oz) milk
3 tablespoons white flour
Salt
Pepper
Butter

Steps:

Prepare the dough. Put flour and salt in a bowl or on a work surface. Stir to blend. Make a well in the center and add the olive oil With your fingertips gradually incorporate the flour into the oil. Then add, gradually, some tablespoons of water till a soft dough forms. Cover with a napkin and allow to rest for about 20-30 minutes. Sauté the chopped onion in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the parsley and the marjoram to the onion when it starts to color. Cover and let it cook for about 15-20 minutes. Add some water, if necessary. Take the saucepan off the heat, add the Swiss chard, half the "Parmesan", 2 beaten eggs; season with salt and pepper. Stir well. Put the "ricotta" cheese in a bowl and with a wooden spoon blend in 2 beaten eggs, the rest of the "Parmesan" cheese, the milk. Season with salt and pepper. At this point add a tablespoon of flour. The mixture should be thick and creamy. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions and flour them. Oil a round shallow oven dish, 12 inches in diameter. Take a portion of dough and roll it out on a floured pastry board to a quarter-inch thickness. Lay the pastry on the oven dish, allowing it to flow over the edges. Oil it lightly. Repeat the operation with 3 more pastry sheets. Meanwhile mix the Swiss chard with the "ricotta" cheese. Spoon the filling on top; level off the top and leave an inch space free all round. Hollow out six cavities in the filling into each of which you will break an egg. Season each with salt, pepper and a dot of butter. Cover the whole lot with the same number of pastry sheets, even thinner than the previous ones. Make sure they do not stick one to the other. Cut off the pastry overlapping the dish. Roll the pieces up to make a cord to put around the edges of the pie, forming a rim. With the prongs of a fork, mark out notches in it. Bake in a medium oven. Remove the pie after an hour or when the pastry is golden.