Easter is near! 🕊️ And it’s no coincidence that our weekly Light and Tasty column today focuses on eggs, an indispensable Easter ingredient! 🐣 For the occasion I prepared Easter tartlets, a reinterpretation of the classic torta pasqualina made with the same basic ingredients (shortcrust-like dough, eggs, herbs) but “in sight” rather than enclosed in the pastry. Let’s say… a kind of deconstructed pasqualina, more or less. 🤤😁
For this recipe I took inspiration from a recipe in the Conad monthly magazine, a magazine I like a lot because it always contains recipes that suit me. However, I used completely different ingredients, aside from the hard-boiled eggs (of course!) and turmeric, an unexpected ingredient for a pasqualina, but I liked the idea of yellow-colored dough (which pairs with the yolk color 😄) and I liked the idea of a vegetable nest on which to lay the eggs. Well, yes, the nest idea is not new, but it’s an evergreen Easter classic that everyone always likes, it never goes out of style! 🤩
I hope you like these Easter tartlets; they are made with a few simple ingredients, are very easy to prepare and look nice on the table despite their simplicity. Try them too!
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Other Easter recipes: 👇
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 45 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter, All seasons
Ingredients
👉 Ingredients refer to four tartlets, two filled with wild greens and two with arugula.
- 1 2/3 cups type 1 flour
- 3 tbsp corn oil
- 1 tsp turmeric (0.14 oz)
- 1/2 cup water
- pepper
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
- 3.5 oz wild greens (weighed cooked, or use Swiss chard or spinach)
- 1 cup arugula
- 1.4 oz Quartirolo Lombardo cheese
- chives
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- pepper
Tools
- Bowl
- Cutting board
- Rolling pin
- Tart/quiche molds single-portion
- Scissors
Steps
Prepare the shortcrust-like dough:
Pour the flour into a bowl.
Mix the oil and water with the turmeric and a sprinkle of pepper. Add everything to the flour, mix with a spoon and then knead briefly with your hands.
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and put them in the fridge.
Meanwhile:
Cook the hard-boiled eggs (in boiling water for 10 minutes from the boil).
Wash and cook the greens (for 10–15 minutes with two fingers of water and covered), then sauté them for a few minutes in a pan with one teaspoon of oil and one clove of garlic (the same simple instructions as in the sautéed red chard recipe).
Wash and dry two small bunches of arugula and dress with a drizzle of oil and a few drops of vinegar (or leave undressed if preferred).
Cut the Quartirolo into small cubes.
Finally, prepare a few chive stems to use as decoration.
Form the first tartlet by taking a piece of dough from the fridge (I leave the remaining dough in the fridge so it stays cool and easier to work with).
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.
Cut out rounds of dough with a pastry wheel to match the size of the molds (I used silicone tartlet molds).
Before baking the tartlets, cover the base with beans to prevent the pastry from deforming during baking.
Bake the tartlets in the oven at 356°F for 15–20 minutes.
Let them cool slightly and then assemble:
Fill two tartlets with arugula and two with the cooked greens.
Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half.
Place a few chive stems on the arugula and on the greens and lay the halved eggs on top.
Add the cubes of Quartirolo and some chives cut into small pieces with the scissors.
Finish with a sprinkle of pepper.
🔸 The pastry is crunchy. By rolling the dough thinner and using the same quantities, you can get 6–8 tartlets instead of the 4 in this recipe. Shortcrust-like dough is usually rolled thin to highlight its crispness.
🔹 If you prefer a more crumbly and less crunchy pastry, you can replace the oil with butter.
🔸 Instead of the cooked greens you can use classic spinach, chard, or agretti, and instead of arugula you can use lamb’s lettuce or baby spinach.
🔹 The cheese can also be substituted with other cheeses to taste, from mozzarella to robiola, or spread ricotta or fresh cheese on the pastry (under the vegetables).
Salt-free tips
As always, I did not add salt in this recipe. Turmeric is perfect to boost flavor!
If you are interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▪ Reduce salt gradually; the palate must get used to the progressive decrease.
▪ Use spices: chili, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▪ Use aromatic herbs: basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▪ Use seeds: sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▪ Use pungent vegetables or fruits: garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▪ Use my salt-free vegetable granulate and gomasio.
▪ Prefer fresh foods.
▪ Avoid boiling in water; prefer cooking methods that retain flavors (griddle, foil, steam, microwave).
▪ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▪ Allow yourself an occasional indulgence. It’s good for your mood and helps you persevere.
If you don’t want to or cannot give up salt:
▪ You can still try my recipes and salt according to your habits.
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Other egg recipes from Light and Tasty:
Carla Emilia: Spinach and leek oven frittata
Claudia: Stuffed eggs with tuna and anchovies
Daniela: Oven frittata with vegetables
Elena: Ajitsuke tamago, Japanese-style marinated egg
Milena: Spiced pak choi with scrambled eggs
