A few years ago, I spent Easter in Puglia. Mornings were spent at the market, where the oranges were so fresh, the blossoms were still attached. There were early strawberries and stalls with towering piles of artichokes.
I love being away from home and learning about the food traditions of a different area. In Italy, there is a special sense of tradition: cakes and pastries made only at this time of year and shops selling nothing but Easter eggs. One Easter-only pie we ate was torta pasquale, packed full of greens and eggs. I saw it on many tables as we walked through the streets and it will grace my table this year. Another thing I have taken to making at Easter is pasteis de nata, or Portuguese custard tarts. They were apparently first made by the monks of Belém, who used the whites to starch their clothes and turned leftover yolks into these burnished, crisp-edged little wonders.
Both of these recipes do veer from the traditional, adapted to include the ingredients I love and the kitchen I cook in. In my opinion, they are the better for it.
Torta pasquale (Easter pie, pictured above)
You can use shop-brought shortcrust pastry, but as this is going to be the main event on my table this Easter, I am making mine from scratch. This pie travels well, so it’s perfect to take to a gathering and can be made a day ahead if needed.
Prep 30 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 8-10
For the pastry
300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
250g unsalted butter, frozen and grated
1 tsp ice-cold water
For the filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
500g swiss chard or spinach leaves, shredded, stalks finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
75g rocket
1 small bunch parsley, roughly chopped
12 sage leaves
1 small bunch basil
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
250g ricotta
200g cheddar
Zest of 1 lemon
6 eggs, 1 of them beaten
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/gas 6. First make the pastry. In a food processor, blitz the flour briefly with the salt and pepper, then add the butter and water. Blitz again until it just forms a dough. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. Slice off a third and form the two pieces into discs (you want one to weigh roughly 360g and the other to weigh 180g). Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge while you make the filling.
Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion, chard stalks and a good pinch of salt and pepper, until soft, about five minutes. Add the chard leaves and garlic, and stir through for one minute. (If using spinach, there’s no need to fry leaves and stalks separately.) Tip the mix into a colander and press it down with a wooden spoon six times, so some of the liquid drains off. Put the mix into a food processor. Add the rocket, parsley, sage, basil, nutmeg, cheeses, lemon zest and one of the eggs, and blitz to combine. (You can do this in a mixing bowl if you don’t have a food processor.) Leave to cool.
Remove the larger piece of dough from the fridge. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a circle big enough to line the base and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin. Press the dough into the corners and up the sides, patching up the pastry where needed. Fill the tin with the chard mix. Make four wells in the mix, then crack in four eggs one by one – you want the level of the egg to be just below the rest of the filling.
Roll out the remaining pastry to a 23cm circle and top the pie. Trim any excess with a knife and crimp or firmly press the pastry together where it meets. Glaze the top with the beaten egg, then make a few holes in the top with a fork. Bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 170C (150C fan)/335F/gas 5 and bake for 30 minutes more. Remove and cool in the tin. Serve at room temperature with buttered jersey royals, asparagus and peas.
Vanilla and orange custard tarts
We’ve made these many times, adding flavours from cardamom to saffron, and working on getting the pastry crisp and the custard perfectly set. Don’t miss the final sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon – it makes these little tarts.
Prep 30 min
Cook 25 min
Makes 12
2 tbsp cornflour
175ml double cream
175ml whole milk
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 tsp cinnamon, plus extra to serve
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g caster sugar
320g ready-rolled sheet all-butter puff pastry
1 tsp icing sugar, plus extra to serve
Zest of 1 orange, to serve
Heat the oven to 200C (fan 180C)/gas 6. Whisk the cornflour with a little of the cream to remove any lumps. Mix in the remaining cream, then add the milk, eggs, one teaspoon cinnamon, vanilla and caster sugar. Put in a pan and heat to just below boiling, stirring all the time, until it starts to thicken. Remove from the heat and cover to stop a skin forming. Leave to cool.
Slice the pastry in half widthways. Sprinkle one layer with one teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of icing sugar. Lay the unseasoned piece on top of the other. Roll the layers up tightly from the short side to form a thick cylinder. Trim the edges to neaten, then cut into 12 x ½cm-thin discs.
Lay them swirl side up and gently roll the discs to roughly 10cm circles, then press them into a 12-hole muffin tin, pushing the pastry up the sides and taking care to push the pastry down where the edge meets the base, so it’s not too thick and there are no gaps.
Pour the cooled custard (about 35ml per tart) into the pastry cases as near to the top as you can go. Bake for 20 minutes, until a little puffed and just set. Leave to cool, then sprinkle with the extra icing sugar, cinnamon and orange zest, to serve.
