Torta Pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina, a savory double-crusted pie filled with greens, artichokes and hard boiled eggs, originated in Genoa in the 1500s, but has become a tradition across Italy in the years since its creation. Our spinach-based recipe comes from Calabrian food blogging duo Cristina Bruno and Giuliano Bronzi of Vuoi Assaggiare.

Given that it’s typically served at Easter, the pie is rich with Christian symbolism. It was originally made with 33 sheets of puff pastry to represent each year of Jesus’s life. (That said, it doesn’t have to have dozens of layers of crust to be delicious and nowadays, it’s often made with fewer.) Cristina and Giuliano‘s pie uses a laminated rough puff pastry as the base, for a slice that’s flaky and buttery and less time intensive than traditional puff pastry. Looking for even more of a shortcut? Use puff pastry found in the frozen section of your supermarket.

The filling – greens, artichokes, eggs and cheese–also carries meaning. The eggs that feature so prominently stand for fertility, and being born again, the way Christ was said to be. Artichokes, once considered vegetables befitting the nobility, are in this way luxurious enough to make the cut for an Easter feast.

As beautiful as it is delicious, when you slice into this pie, you’ll reveal a hard boiled egg surrounded by the brilliant green of spinach and artichokes. Want to make sure each slice is a stunner? To know where best to reveal your eggs, lightly score the top of your pastry with a butter knife before baking.

Notes: If you’d prefer to use store-bought pastry instead of making your own, look for sheets of frozen puff pastry at your local grocery store.

Torta pasqualina