Italian Easter Pie Recipe

Author: Veruska Anconitano, Award-Winning Food Travel Journalist, Sommelier & Outdoor LoverAuthor information
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Veruska Anconitano
Veruska is a a food travel journalist with awards to her credit, such as World Best Food Travel Journalist. She holds a certification as a sommelier and she is also an ardent lover of the outdoors. Aside from this, Veruska is a Multilingual SEO and Localization Consultant and co-owns multiple websites that cater to a global audience.
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Traditional Italian Easter Pie Recipe

Are you looking for an Easter Pie Recipe? Don’t look further: with this Traditional Italian Easter Pie with Eggs, also called pizza rustica, you’ll surely be so successful everyone will be pleased to be sitting at your dinner table!

Traditionally called “Pasqualina cake”, this Easter Pie Recipe is typical of the Liguria Region, North of Italy, and not only it is delicious. It is also extremely symbolic. In fact, according to tradition it should be prepared by layering 33 layers of puff pastry to celebrate the days of life of Jesus; eggs, instead, symbolise rebirth and are a typical Easter symbol present in many typical Italian recipes for the Easter period.

The preparation is very simple even if long and the real difference are the ingredients that must be of the highest quality: the original recipe requires that you use prescinseua (Genoese quagliata), a typical kind of cheese from Genova city which is very difficult to find and because of the flavor can be replaced by ricotta cheese.

The dough is homemade but if you want to play safe, you may also use some shop bough pizza dough: the result won’t be the same, but it will be quite close.

The Italian Easter Pie Recipe that I present to you, is made with fewer layers but the result is truly exceptional: the dough becomes crispy on top and soft underneath, the filling is firmly compacted and the eggs become firm, so that at cut reveal a really pleasant surprise.

Try my Traditional Italian Easter Pie with Eggs and bring it to the table on Easter and Easter Monday! If you want, try the casatiello, a typical Easter cake from Naples or the famous Easter Italian Bread. If you want to cook like an Italian, have a look at our selection of Easter Recipes.

Easter Pie Ingredients (23-25cm round pan)

For the dough

  • 400 grams all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt
  • Water as needed
  • For the filling

  • 500 grams of chard
  • 250 grams of ricotta cheese
  • 9 eggs
  • 5 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 4 tablespoons of grated Pecorino cheese
  • Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Grated Nutmeg
  • Traditional Italian Easter Pie Recipe

    1. Mix flour, oil, water and salt to get a mix without lumps. Make 4 small ball of the same size and of the same weight and put them to rest covered with a cotton cloth for an hour;
    2. Prepare the filling by cooking the washed and coarsely chopped chard in a non-stick pan without water and over low heat so that it does not lose its flavour;
    3. Once it is ready, eliminate the cooking water that forms automatically and chop it. Quickly sauté in a pan with a little oil;
    4. Mix the chard with 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan, 2 tablespoons of grated Pecorino cheese, salt and pepper;
    5. In another bowl, add 3 eggs to the ricotta, nutmeg to taste, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons of Pecorino cheese, mixing well so that the mixture blends well and then add salt and pepper as needed. Combine the two mixes;
    6. Take the dough rolls, roll them out on a floured surface with a rolling pin, then place two, one on top of the other, on the bottom of the oiled pan. Make them adhere well so that no bubbles are formed;
    7. Pour the mixture over the pastry, levelling it well so that the surface remains smooth;
    8. Lay a layer of remaining dough on the surface of the cake making it adhere well then with the knuckles of the hand make 4 holes (without pushing too much) and open the 4 eggs left inside these holes;
    9. Close the cake with the last layer of pastry, remove the excess dough and spread with extra virgin olive oil. Bake in a hot oven at 180° C for about 50 minutes.

    Preparation time: 4 hours

    Easter Pie: useful tips

    • This Traditional Italian Easter Pie with Eggs can be kept in the fridge, covered, for 3 days;
    • It can be frozen once cooked and cold, cut into slices for greater practicality. To thaw, it should be left in the refrigerator and then heated in the oven at medium-low temperature.
    • You can simplify your pie by using high quality puff pastry, which will make it crunchier and more crispy;
    • You can use a mix of spinach and chard for your filling: in this way you will have a very tasty cream suitable for the spring period;
    • If you want to prepare Pasqualina with artichokes, follow exactly the same procedure but instead of chard cook artichoke hearts in a pan with a little oil, crumble them when they are cold and add them to the cheese;
    • You can change the ingredients by using charcuterie (salami, ham, etc) and cheese and simply adding these instead of vegetables.
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