Casatiello or Easter's Stuffed Bread

Casatiello is a traditional Italian recipe from Naples that is usually prepared for Easter. Casatiello is a sort of stuffed bread with cheese and salami, in particular you can use provolone cheese, silano cheese or pecorino cheese with the addition of salami, bologna and bacon. It is characterized for the presence on its surface of eggs. Casatiello is ideal for short trip and it is delicious either warm or cold.

INGREDIENTS:

500 g of Flour

25g of Brewer’s Yeast

50 g of lard

200 ml of Warm water

Salt

200 g of cheese in small cubes (Silano or Provolone cheese)

200 g of Salami in small cubes ( salame and bologna)

3 eggs

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes plus the time for leavening

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Aglianico (red wine)

PREPARATION

Dissolve the brewer’s yeast in the warm water, place the flour, the lard and salt in a bowl mix them together. Add in the middle the water 

and start to knead the ingredients in order to obtain homogeneous dough. 

Let it stand for about 2-3 hours or until it becomes double.

Stand the dough, remove a little pieces that you will need later. Cover its surface with the mixture of  silano cheese, salame and bologna. 

Roll the dough and make a sort or ring-shape cake. 

Place casatiello on a baking pan, better if you have the baking pan that you used to cook the ring-shape cake. Place on the surface of the casatiello the 3 raw eggs 

and cover them with little pieces of the dough as shown in the picture. 

Preheat the oven at 200 degree, bake casatiello for about 40 minutes. Serve it warm or cold

BUON APPETITO!

Easter Cake - Torta Pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina is a typical Italian Easter recipe that comes from Liguria. It is a traditional tart made with a thin pastry stuffed with vegetables, ricotta cheese, Parmesan and eggs and it is traditionally prepared the Easter day as an appetizer. In this recipe I use the chard that is the vegetable traditionally used for its preparation in Liguria but as an alternative you can use the artichokes, then I add the ricotta and 5 entire eggs. A particular characteristic of this tart is that the eggs inside should be entire, for this reason you should make on the surface of the stuffing a sort of holes and place inside them the eggs without brake them. The stuffing is contained in a pastry simply made with flour, extra virgin olive oil, salt and water, as I describe below, or you can use also the flaky pastry. The first pastry result more crunchy than the second and it is ideal for the tender stuffing inside. Its preparation is a bit long but easy and the result at the end is wonderful.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
400 g of Flour
Water
1 Kg of Chard
5 Eggs
100 g of Parmesan
1 / 2 Onion
500 g of Ricotta
7 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Marjoram
Parsley

PREPARATION TIME: 45 minutes

COOKING TIME: 50 minutes

WINE: Golfo del Tigullio Vermentino (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Place the flour on a table as a fountain, add salt, 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, water



and mix all together until you obtain an homogeneous dough, continue to knead the dough for about 10 minutes then divide it in 6 parts and let them stand for 30 minutes covered with a towel.



In the meantime prepare the stuffing: clean the chard and cut them in stripes, preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add the chard together with the onion cut in slices, sprinkle with salt and the chopped parsley



and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes or until the chard wilt. When the chard are ready let them cold then place them in a bowl together with the ricotta, the Parmesan, salt, black pepper and marjoram and mix.



Preheat the oven to 180°CX. Now with the help of a rolling pin roll the 6 parts of the dough in order to obtain a very thin pastry.



Place a sheet of baking paper on the bottom of a baking-pan, place over it the first pastry and brush its surface with few extra virgin olive oil, place over it the second pastry brush also it with the oil and then place the third but not brush its surface with the oil.



Now pour on it the mixture of chard and ricotta,



makes 5 holes in it and in each holes place the 5 eggs.



Cover the stuffing with the other three pastries in the same way described before.



Close the pastry as shown in the picture below



and bake for 50 minutes until the surface becomes golden.



You can serve it hot but it is delicious also cold.
This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!