French Food Friday - Tourte Pascale

 

Finally I have found a recipe I want to make for Easter.  

In French Boyfriend's dreams I would be cooking lamb but I do not eat red meat and just the thought of it cooking in my kitchen makes me feel nauseous.

For some reason most people think most New Zealanders love eating lamb and that is the reason there are around 60 million sheep in NZ. To be honest I am sure the French eat more of it than we do as the supermarkets sell a lot of it.

I was originally thinking about salmon then found this recipe which will do nicely. Tourte pascale is a delicious pie in a flaky crust with eggs nested inside the filling and it is traditionally  served at Easter, the original intention was to use up surplus eggs that hens laid during Lent.

Tourte Pascale

Serves: 8

Preparation time: 30 minutes                              Cooking time:1 hour

Ingredients

1 roll of shortcrust pastry

1 roll of puff pastry

8 eggs + 1 yolk

500g ricotta

1 kg frozen leaf spinach

100 g freshly grated parmesan

20g butter

1 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. oregano

salt pepper

Directions

Thaw the spinach over low heat in a saucepan, then squeeze it in your hands to drain well. Roughly chop them with a knife, then mix them in a bowl with half the parmesan, flour, salt and pepper.

In another bowl, whisk the ricotta with 2 eggs, the oil and the rest of the parmesan. Salt, pepper and flavor with oregano.

Preheat the oven to 200° degrees. Unroll the short crust pastry in a springform pan, with its baking paper.

Put the spinach in the mold, cover with ricotta. With the back of a spoon, make 6 cavities in the ricotta, break an egg in each one. Place a piece of butter on each egg.

Cover with the puff pastry and pinch the 2 pieces between your fingers to seal the edges.

Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg yolk, prick the surface with a fork (without piercing the eggs!).

Bake for about 50 minutes, until the pie is golden brown. Leave to rest for 5 minutes out of the oven, unmold and serve.

Bon vendredi from a rainy SW France ♥

Leeann x