Monday, July 26, 2010

Artichoke season...."Artichoke Pasqualina" or Artichoke pie....I just love artichokes


I love artichokes, and when I find them, I buy enough quantities to make one of my favorite dishes....."Pasqualina".....

I know that in Argentina and Uruguay, Pasqualina is made of spinach or swiss chard (and it has boiled eggs in between). I love those Pasqualinas, but for me Pasqualina must be made of artichokes. That is how I learned to eat and that is how is made in Liguria.

This recipe is very simple and tasty, but it requires a lot of work. Nevertheless, I don't care about time consuming when I end up eating one of my favorite dishes.......

Since I have bought a lot of artichokes, I will make a lot of artichoke dishes. Today, it is Pasqualina.....the rest of the week I will prepare artichoke raviolis and linguinis with artichoke sauce.

Here goes the recipe:

Dough
400 grams of flour
1/2 spoon of salt
3 spoons of olive oil
Warm water (as needed)

To brush the dough
Mix of 1 spoon of butter and 3 spoons of olive oil

Filling
12 small artichokes
3 or 4 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Marjoram
4 eggs
1 cup of grated parmiggiano reggiano cheese
1/4 cup of ricotta
1 lemon

Choose twelve small artichokes. Fill a container with water and the juice of half lemon. Peel every artichoke from bottom up, leaving only the heart. Place them in water with lemon to avoid the brown color.



Once you have peeled them, cut along the artichoke hearts in small strips.Plave them in a pan with olive oil and garlic. Saute them and add the pepper, nutmeg, and a little bit of salt (you will use a lot of parmiggiano reggiano cheese that is salty). Once is cooked, let it cool. Reserve.





To do the dough, mix the salt and flour. Add the olive oil, and warm water as needed to make an elastic dough. Pass it through the rolls of the pasta maker until number 7. It has to be a very thin dough. 

In a pie dish, put a thin layer of the dough, and brush it with a mix of olive oil and butter. Continue putting layer, brushing each one with butter and olive oil. Usually, I make six layers. You can do more or less.



Beat the eggs and incorporate the cooked (and cold) artichoke. Incorporate the ricotta, marjoram and parmiggiano reggiano. Distribute evenly over the pie dough.

 




Cook it in a preheated oven at 400F for 20-30 minutes, or until fully cooked and golden brown. Pasqualina is eat it warm or cold (I like it cold) with a touch of a very good olive oil on top.  Enjoy it!!!







4 comments:

  1. I love what I see!!!! Good looking plate the "pasqualina" I wish I had a slice at the moment!

    Have a great and blessed day,
    Mari

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  2. Es cierto que en Argentina las pascualinas son generalmente de acelga o espinaca, yo tambien la hago de puerros y de zapallitos pero de alcahuciles nunca y me parece genial! La masa puesta en capas es una novedad para mí, muy buena, felicitaciones!
    Cariños

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  3. Mari...you will love when you eat it!!!....for sure.....Abrazos, Marcela

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cris.....te va a gustar.....es sabrosa y la masa crujiente....Abrazos, Marcela

    ReplyDelete