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Even More Easter Torta

Easter in Umbria means it’s time for Torta Di Pasqua, a rich holiday cheese bread unique to the region. Visiting chef Jennifer McIlvaine stopped by to bake a scrumptious batch in our laboratorio kitchen, and gave us her recipe. But because every Umbrian family has their own special way of making Torta Di Pasqua, we asked several of our friends for their recipes. Simone, Ernesto, and Marco and Chiara all chimed in, and each of their ways of making Torta Di Pasqua sound amazing. Try them out at home with cheese from our cheese counter and tell us which version you like best!

Ready for the oven, miniature-style!
Ready for the oven, miniature-style!

Ernesto’s Torta Di Pasqua

5 eggs
1T of oil or 1T of pork fat (strutto)
2 cubes (50g) fresh yeast
5 pinches of salt
100g gruyere cut into cubes
100g parmigiano grated
Flour

Mix together eggs, oil, yeast salt and parmigiano.  Add flour until you have a soft dough.  Add gruyere cubes.
Fill a buttered baking tin just under half full.  Let rise for one hour. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180c.

Here's what you'll need to make you very own Torta di Pasqua!
Here’s what you’ll need to make you very own Torta di Pasqua!

Marco and Chiara’s Torta Di Pasqua

10 eggs
200 grams wet yeast
800 grams grated cheese (parmigiana, pecorino, swiss) – leave some in larger pieces
250 grams unsalted butter melted
30 grams salt
black pepper
10li grams sugar
Water, oil and flour as needed
Separate the eggs. Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Mix the yeast with sugar, warm water and tablespoon of flour and let sit.
Beat the egg yolks until creamy, add the melted butter, salt, pepper and cheese.  Fold into the egg whites. Add yeast.  Mix in flour, water and oil until you reach desired consistency.
Butter the baking molds.  Split the dough into four pieces, roll into balls and place into each mold (filling approximately half full).  Cover and let rise (sitting next to a pot of hot water) for 3 hours.
When the dough reaches the top of the mold bake in a 160c oven for 30 minutes. Raise the temperature to 180c and cook for additional 10 minutes.  When the top starts to brown cover with aluminum.
It's not fun unless you get a little messy.
It’s not fun unless you get a little messy.
Simone’s Torta Di Pasqua

2.2 lbs pizza dough

10 eggs
1 cup parmigiano
1 cup Romano
1 cup strong pecorino grated
Salt
Pepper
1 tbs yeast
1 cup butter
1 cup pork fat
1 cup olive oil
Work all the ingredients together. Add 00 flour until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Let sit for three hours and then knead it. Fill a buttered pan half full.  Let sit again in the oven off with a pot of hot water (to maintain humidity). Wait until doubled. Bake for 2 hours at 325 degrees. Test with a tooth pick . When it’s ready, set upside down until cool.
Let us know how you Torta Di Pasqua turns out and send photos of your bake-a-thon to feedme@viaumbria.com. Best of luck!
 

 

 

An Umbrian holiday tradition Read more

Easter in Umbria means it's time for Torta Di Pasqua, a rich holiday cheese bread unique to the region. Visiting chef Jennifer McIlvaine stopped by ...

Torta Di Pasqua

Colombe cakes are a celebrated Easter treat throughout Italy, but did you know that Umbria has its own leavened Easter speciality? Today, chef Jennifer McIlvaine joined us to bake the region’s signature Easter bread, Torta Di Pasqua, before she returns home to Cannara. She gave us a little background on this delicious dish, as well as her own recipe. Here’s what she had to say about this beloved Torta.
Chef Jennifer McIlvaine kneading Torta di Pasqua dough.
Chef Jennifer McIlvaine kneading Torta di Pasqua dough.
Easter is the most important holiday in the Catholic church, so for Italians, Easter is the biggest holiday, even bigger than Christmas. In its earliest incarnation, Easter began as a Roman pagan tradition, which the Church turned into a Christian holiday to bring people into the fold.
During Carnevale, we make a lot of fried food because we have to use up all the fats, lard, and sugar in the house before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. During Lent, tradition says you’re supposed to fast from sweets and meat. But then on Easter morning, we eat Torta Di Pasqua.
Easter is the only day of the year that we eat a salty breakfast. We’ve been fasting from heavy things, but Torta Di Pasqua, or Pizza Di Pasqua, has eggs, pork fat, and lots of cheeses. Eggs were considered very expensive, so anything that has a lot of eggs was a sign of richness. In fact, we eat the Torta di Pasqua with a hard boiled egg. Eggs are another old pagan tradition. They have always been  a sign of spring, of rebirth and new beginnings. And that is why we have eggs for Easter.
Fresh organic eggs! These hens must have known Easter is right around the corner.
Fresh organic eggs! These hens must have known Easter is right around the corner.
Another traditional dish we eat on Easter morning with Torta Di Pasqua are the first salumi of the year. Today, farmers makes salumi all year long because we have refrigerators. However before refrigerators, farmers would only butcher pigs in November, December, and January, the coldest months of the year. The first salumi–smaller cuts like salami and capocollo–would age for three months and be ready to eat by Easter. So the tradition is that you eat Torta Di Pasqua, a hard boiled egg, and a slice of salumi. We always have lamb at easter, so we also eat Coratella, a lamb innerd stew, for breakfast as well. In Cannara, our town, we drink a sweet wine called Vernaccia with breakfast as well.

As far as buying Torta Di Pasqua versus making your own, in my town the split is about 50/50. In Cannara, the baker opens up his oven to the people of the town, usually on Holy Thursday or Good Friday, and lets them bake their own bread. So many people makes the dough at home and bakes it in his big oven. The best Torta Di Pasqua is made in a wood-fired oven, so you’ll see people light up their ovens a few days before Easter and then everybody brings their dough over. It’s a community thing, so people cook them together. It’s nice.

Here is Jennifer’s recipe for Torta Di Pasqua, which she made fresh for us today. Snag a mini Torta or get your very own full-sized loaf before they’re gone!

Golden mini Tortas, now available at our counter!
Golden mini Tortas, now available at our counter!

Jennifer McIlvaine’s Pizza Di Pasqua

  • 25 g brewer’s yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 100g warm water
  • 300g ’00’ flour
  • 500g ‘0’ flour + 100g for dusting
  • 5-6 eggs
  • 150g grated pecorino romano
  • 150g grated parmigiano reggiano
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 50g lard
  • 5 Tbs e.v. olive oil
  • 150g diced sharp provolone
  • 150g diced swiss cheese

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water.   Slowly add the flours, little by little, alternating with the eggs.  Mix well.  Add the grated cheeses, salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Add the lard and olive oil.  Knead well for about 10 minutes.   Add the diced provolone & swiss cheese and knead until well mixed.  Divide the dough into two equal parts and form into balls, folding the dough over itself.  Place each ball into a deep baking tin that has been greased (with lard) and floured.

Let rise for about 2 hours or until dough has reached the top of the tin.  Bake in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes, then 180°C for another 40 minutes.  The Tortas are ready when a test stick comes out clean.

Every family has its own Torta Di Pasqua recipe. Check back later for more variations!

Umbria's Easter specialty bread Read more

Colombe cakes are a celebrated Easter treat throughout Italy, but did you know that Umbria has its own leavened Easter speciality? Today, chef ...