Giant Green Pie (Torta Pasqualina) Recipe (2024)

Delicious! I actually use Phyllo dough, because it's easier. I agree that the filling should be very well-seasoned - a bit more than perhaps you think, and to bake until VERY well browned. This is in my regular rotation, and keeps nicely for up a week - just pop in the oven to warm & crisp up the crust a bit.

Use phyllo and you basically have spanokopita -- delicious, of course. I make a variation very similar, but use polenta instead of dough, or you can go hybrid and use polenta for the bottom and top with phyllo. The polenta on the bottom has better texture when cooked than either pie crust or phyllo, and the phyllo on the top, with liberal olive oil brushed on, is flaky and crisp.

Taste of Home : When a recipe calls for cooked fresh spinach, 1 pound of fresh spinach will yield 10-12 cups of torn leaves, which will cook down to about 1 cup. One package (10 ounces) of frozen spinach leaves yields about 1-1/2 cups after cooking. Therefore, you can substitute 1 package (10 ounces) frozen spinach leaves for 1-1/2 pounds of fresh spinach. I think the measurement of cooked greens would be better by the cup vs by the pound since kale and chard will take up more volume.

Torta Pascualina was traditionally served only at Easter time. In the old days thin dough was considered the mark of a great cook. It was used from sweets to savories, but in the case of the Pascualina there was a reason. When people did not have an oven at home all baking things were sent to the local bakery. There was always the chance that some of the filling may came running out and ruin the torte. Doubling the pastry could avoid that because the first layer would hold the filling inside.

Not entirely sure why the dough is divided into four parts. Maybe it is to mimic phyllo dough? I did make it the recipe as written, but since I did not see any benefit to the division of dough, I would make this again just dividing the dough in two.

Subbed phyllo for the pastry and used a mix of escarole, spinach and kale for the greens. I made a fresh batch of ricotta, which is more like cottage cheese, so might have been a little looser than with store bough ricotta. Added some crushed red pepper and garlic, too...delicious!

Everyone loved this. I used about 2/3 spinach. The rest of the greens were: chard, garlic chives, a Chinese vegetable that looks like the leaves of scallions. I followed instructions to really squeeze the moisture out. Think this was very important. Next time I will use more black pepper, increase the nutmeg. Also, served marinara sauce on the side. Everyone thought it a delicious combo. Will make this again. Baked during the afternoon;popped back in 250 degree oven to reheat for dinner

I used baby kale and spinach, ricotta and no parmesan, also omitted the whole eggs on the top - I was looking for a less decadent outcome. Be sure to add the sugar to the top crust...it turned out just fantastic!

Reason for dividing dough is to increase flakiness. When you brush a thinner layer with oil then top with another layer it helps to separate them. This is technique used with phyllo dough to make it more pastry crust flaky, part of the charm and contrast with filling, I imagine, though am just about to try this!

I was really lazy about this and used frozen puff pastry: one piece for the top and one piece for the bottom. And I cooked it in a deep dish pie pan. And it was wonderful!

This is a terrific recipe. I used Lacinato kale and curly kale--three large bunches from the local co-op to make 4 cups. Fresh spinach is not readily available in Central NY this time of year at a good price. I took the heavy stems and ribs out. The kale made the pie a solid and satisfying meal. The whites of eggs on top dripped over the edge of the kale. That helped me glue the pastry together, but it was slippery to work with. Everyone loved the pie. It was like a special sandwich for lunch.

Made this beautiful spinach torte tonight The dough was so easy to make and roll out. This would be a great dish for company, so impressive looking. I had to add some cooking time due to x-large eggs, but it turned out great. It is definitely worth the extra effort to roll out two layers below and two laters above the spinach mixture.

Step 4 has instructions for the remaining 5 eggs - the ones not beaten and incorporated into the greens in Step 3.

To get four thin layers, I marked a 12" circle on the underside of parchment, and rolled the dough on top. As it was bit warm, I needed to refrigerate the rolled dough until all layers were ready. I prepared both the dough and filling (before adding the beaten eggs) the previous day and since my filling was a bit chilled, baked five minutes longer. We used red chard, and the dish looked beautiful and tasted great when finished. I do agree the filling must be aggressively seasoned.

This was great, even with all the substitutions I made. Paneer instead of ricotta, no Parmesan, and crappy pre-formed pie crust shells. I still found it very enjoyable and can't wait to try the recipe with better ingredients. I drizzled some lemon olive oil on my sauteed greens once they cooled and enjoyed the flavor it added.

I did the dough as instructed but it was WAY too wet, i added a lot of flour but was still pretty sticky. Did anyone have the same problem?

Could one break up the recipe make this in small tart pans?

Lovely! We used phyllo dough (a weird and admittedly illegitimate attempt to make this Passover-friendly -- hey, it's not leavened! :) It was thus a bit more like spanakopita, but... I used mostly butter on the phyllo (a bit of EVOO), and more than the recipe calls for because that's what you need for phyllo. Mostly spinach, with one bunch of chard thrown in. Made it as instructed on a 12" flat pizza pan (baked it on that on top of a larger baking sheet). Everyone loved it. Will make again!

Such a nice easy breezy dough vs store-bought phyllo. Wasn't sure the bottom would hold up with that.

Have made this a number of time and it is always a hit. Make sure mixture is well seasoned and you won’t be disappointed!

I agree with others who have posted that it's fine to skip the blanching step, and the sprinkle of sugar on top is surprisingly good. I used one 16-oz. bag frozen chopped spinach and one bunch of rainbow chard, stems and all, chopped fine. After comparing multiple similar recipes, I also added the zest of one lemon (fantastic!) and some diced ham to the filling, and I used a mix of melted butter and olive oil to brush between the layers of pastry.

This recipe is always a crowd pleaser. This time we used the eggs we had on hand, which were extra large, and the whites ran all over the place when we cracked them into the divots. It was still delicious but we had to drain some of the egg whites off and add a bit of flower to the edges to crimp the layers of dough together.Make sure to use smaller eggs or make deeper and possibly fewer divots if you are using extra large eggs.

Serving 8-10 was way too much for just two of us, so I halved the recipe and made a 6-7 in pie. For the dough, though I reduced the portions only by a third, which worked well. I used food processor for blending the dough and it came togther with a few kneads beautifully and was super easy to roll out. Also--I used all these spicy greens from my garden that had been massacred by flea beetles. Went ahead and did all four rounds bcz. the dough was so easy to work with. Turned out terrific!

I used broccoli rabe for the greens and they were really well. I love the recipe and will make a few changes. I will roll out only one crust each for top and bottom crust since the two thinner crusts were harder to work with and became very soft quickly thereby making holes when crimping the dough together. I would also decrease the greens and ricotta a bit since there was just too much filling for the dough. The taste was great and I will make this again.

In my book, there is no need to boil the greens. Just cut up and saute a bit. Makes life , and recipe, that much easier!

Want to make the filling one day ahead for a party. Thoughts?

I used a mix of greens: kale leaves and the sprouting flower heads (in the spring, over-wintered kale produces truly delicious broccoli-like buds), leeks, a generous handful of mint leaves and made up the difference with frozen spinach. I used phyllo dough and put it in a 10" pie pan, but next time, I will put in on a baking sheet so I can keep the greens layer thinner in relation to the crispy pastry layers.

thinking of adding extra English peas to the mixture. thoughts?

I made the dough from scratch. It is very easy to make and satisfying to eat as it gives a different type of crunch than the well known spanakopita. I agree that the seasoning should be (frighteningly) generous. I served the pie with Mark Bittman's raw beetroot salad with carrots and ginger. It worked great both as a color composition on the plate as well as a festive and invigorating combination of flavors.