4-Ingredient Spinach-Ricotta Pie

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I started drooling when I saw the cover of April’s edition of La Cucina Italiana: there, calling to me, sat a massive savory pie of ricotta, spinach, and eggs to celebrate spring. It’s called Torta Pasqualina, and you can check out its history and their recipe on their website. However this spring, admist everything going on, I’ve been trying to keep things simple. I’ve streamlined this recipe so it’s easy to assemble and only requires 4 ingredients.

Don’t let the low ingredient count fool you– this is a very rich and filling pie. Moreover, the ratio of effort to ooos and ahhs is definitely in your favor; this pie is a showstopper to bring to any spring gatherings. No pre-cooking is even necessary. Use frozen chopped spinach and puff pastry, and you can just assemble and stick it in the oven.

Do take a minute to mark the top of the pastry to remind you where you place the eggs– the side view of a beautifully halved egg will have people drooling. If you want to have fun with it, try chopping up some artichokes or mushrooms to mix in with the spinach and ricotta cheese, or double the spinach to create a very green filling, reminiscent of spring.

I was so excited, I just ate it straight from the pan 😀

Recipe: Torta Pasqualina

Ingredients:

  • 15 oz package of ricotta cheese
  • 8 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Coat a 8-inch pan with cooking spray, butter, or oil.
  3. Mix ricotta and thawed chopped spinach together in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Measure one of the puff pastry sheets to the pan. If it is not large enough to cover the bottom and the sides, roll out the sheet until it fits on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin.
  5. Add the puff pastry sheet to cover the bottom and sides of the pan, and then fill with spinach-ricotta mixture.
  6. Using a large spoon or ladle, make 6 dents in the spinach-ricotta filling.
  7. Crack an egg into each dent. (It’s ok if they run together a bit.)
  8. Cover with the remaining puff pastry sheet, and cut small vents in the top pastry over the middle of each egg. Cut off or fold excess pastry dough.
  9. Bake pie in the oven for 1 hour, and let cool before serving.

My baked brie pizza en croute

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Image of baked brie en croute with melted cheese leaking out

I’m a glutton for cheese

I was rummaging through my freezer trying to find and use up forgotten items and came across some packaged dough. I had removed it from its box to save space, and now had to remember what type of dough it was. Pizza dough? Puff pastry? It had to be one of those. I was really hoping it was the puff pastry because I had been wanting to make and eat one of those super gluttonous, melty cheese and pizzazz pastry appetizers otherwise known as brie en croute. You’ve probably seen these on other food and recipe sites, especially when holidays roll around; Google, Instagram, and Pinterest are abundant with examples.

(Brie en croute drool fest. Left: Baked Brie en Croute with Honey, Dried Cherries, Rosemary & Pecans from Once Upon a Chef; Middle: Baked Brie with Cranberry Chutney from James Briscione; Right: Baked Brie with Boozy Fruit from Martha Stewart)

These brie en croute recipes usually follow a combination of a brie wheel, topped with an elegant combination of fruit preserves, nuts or herbs, wrapped in a delightfully golden brown and crispy puff pastry crust.

Except as I was gathering ingredients and took a closer look at the defrosted dough, I realized my hopes had been in vain– it was pizza dough. After a couple beats of disappointment for the sweet, cheesy and tangy melty appetizer that I planned to eat all by myself (no sharing thank you), I remembered that this was pizza dough, and pizza has never failed me. And so why not make the best of this situation and merge two beautiful things together to make an incredibly indulgent pizza brie en croute a.ka. the fancy-pantsiest calzone ever? As if fate really needed to intervene, tomato sauce was in the fridge, along with my favorite pizza toppings, and voila! It was settled.

Eat this right out of the oven. Share at your own risk, because it will be gone in 5 minutes. The crust isn’t really there to hold or contain the pizza fillings, because the contents will all fall out in one glorious ooze once it’s cut, but the crust provides a slight crunch, the tomato sauce a nice tang, all to emphasize the richness, the buttery flavor of the melted brie. It’s incredibly indulgent, deep dish pizza in a pizza pocket, and will be your friend on bad days and cold winter nights.

It’s so gouda I camembert it! Ha! And now that I’ve ruined the moment, here’s how to make it.

Baked Brie in a pizza crust, aka the World’s Fanciest Pizza Pocket

This recipe is really simple to put together: lay out and roll (if needed) the pizza dough, spread some tomato sauce and topping in the center, add brie wheel on top, spread more tomato sauce and toppings on top and on the sides, and finally wrap up the whole thing and bake it!

Ingredients
1 frozen pizza crust (defrosted)
1 wheel Brie cheese
Tomato sauce of your choice
Pizza toppings of your choice (my favorite is pepperoni and sliced pickled pepperoncini peppers)
Olive oil or butter

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Roll out the pizza dough. A roughly 11″ circle should work.
  3. Scatter a handful of the pizza toppings on the dough around the center, where the brie wheel will be.
  4. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in the center of the dough. About 1/4 inch thickness will work great. If you add too much, the bottom of the pizza dough will be soggy.
  5. Place brie wheel over tomato sauce and toppings.
  6. Add more tomato sauce on the top and sides of the brie wheel.
  7. Scatter more pizza toppings on top of brie wheel and sides.
  8. Fold the dough over the sides to create a nice little pizza dumpling.
  9. Spread a little oil or butter over the top of the dough.
  10. Bake for 10 minutes or until dough is golden-brown.
  11. Let cool for 5-8 minutes before eating, or else you will burn your tongue if you dig into it immediately like I did.