Torta Pasqualina vs. Ham

This year instead of making the traditional ham for Easter, I'm making Torta Pasqualina. Literally translated, it means Easter Pie. Apparently it's an Italian tradition from the Ligurian region. So far it's been a pain. The ingredients include over two pounds of chard, a pound of ricotta cheese, a quarter pound of grated parmesan cheese, one small onion, some fresh marjoram, salt, pepper and 13 eggs.

I thought it would be fun for Mark and I to make it together - you just know something with 13 eggs in it has to be a bit fussy (suitably complex to make it a two-person job) - but he felt a compelling urge to fine tune our computers this afternoon so I was on my own with it. Not a recipe I care to repeat anytime soon. The kitchen was a complete mess!

But it's out of the oven now and I think it's almost ready to eat. The top crusts of the pie sort of drooped off the edges and fell into the bottom of the oven, making just a bit of a mess. (Thank goodness the oven is self-cleaning.) This meal will kick-off a series of Italian meals. I'm using a cookbook that we bought last October while we were in Italy.

Normally when I choose a cookbook, I look for a soup, a vegetarian dish, a beef dish, a chicken dish, a pork dish, a seafood dish, and maybe a side dish. Just let me say that the recipes selected for the coming seven to ten days do not meet this criteria. There is not one chicken recipe in the entire cookbook. No. Not even one. I know they have chickens in Italy, but you wouldn't know it from this cookbook. Nor will we be having pork this week. All of the pork recipes called for things like feet and tongues. I just don't think so. There also won't be any seafood this week. I have no idea where to get a cuttelfish or a dogfish. Aside from that, I'm not convinced that those are fish I really want to eat.

We will be feasting on meat lasagne, veal cutlets, spaghetti with pesto, pasta with eggplant, pasta with mushrooms and truffles, and a chick pea soup. Can't wait! But now to go try that Torta Pasqualina...