Italian Easter Spinach Pie with Pasture-Raised Eggs and Locally-Sourced Cheese Brunch Recipe
Tara Hoot, 4P Foods Member
The 4P Foods team wants to help you turn in season produce handpicked by farmers in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., the Eastern Seaboard, and Mid-Atlantic into delicious, homemade meals. Romaine calm; we have flavorful dishes to add to your weekly menu and seasonal ingredients to add to your 4P grocery delivery tote.
Pie there! This spin on a traditional Italian Easter spinach pie is a showstopper at brunch gatherings. Slicing into the pie and seeing the decorative cooked egg in the center of the slice will wow your friends and family. We are so grateful to 4P Foodie Tara Hoot for sharing this vegetarian recipe with us. It truly is cheesy and delicious and perfect for spring. The pie can be sliced into eight pieces. Watch Tara Hoot’s video to see how to make this pie.
Here is how to make this recipe with purpose-fueled food that’s better for the prosperity of our planet and people.
Ingredients
Crust
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 ⅔ cup cold butter
- 3 eggs (all eggs from 4P, too!)
- 3 (or more) tablespoons of ice water
Filling
NOTE: This is enough filling for 2 ‘normal’ sized pies, or one large pie as seen in the photo and video.
- 32oz Ricotta Cheese
- 16oz chopped fresh spinach, wilted, drained
- 16oz shredded mozzarella, parmesan, provolone mixed together
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 2 pasture-raised eggs
- Salt and pepper to taste
(You’ll need 4 more farm-fresh eggs to break into the pie for a dramatic interior, darlings! Check out the video!)
Directions
To make the dough, stir together flour and salt in a large bowl or food processor. Add the butter pieces into the spinning food processor until incorporated. You can also add butter pieces by hand, rubbing together using your fingers until evenly incorporated. Once butter is incorporated, the mixture resembles cornmeal. If using a food processor, transfer to a bowl and continue.
Beat 3 eggs in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add beaten eggs into the flour well and stir with a fork to combine.
Stir in 3 tablespoons of ice water. Continue adding up to 2 tablespoons of ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until a shaggy dough forms. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
Unwrap chilled dough; Split the dough into ⅔ and ⅓ if using springform or into 1/4s for two ‘normal’ sized pies. Place on a lightly floured work surface, and roll to ¼ inch thickness. The larger one will be the bottom piece. This is enough dough for a bottom and top layer in a 9 inch springform pan, or probably enough dough for 2 pies, bottom and top, in a regular sized pie pan.
To make the filling, saute diced onion and garlic over medium heat in a bit of olive oil until translucent and soft. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, chopped spinach, shredded cheese and sauteed onion and garlic. Add salt and pepper or other preferred spices. Then, thoroughly mix in 2 eggs.
Put the bottom layer of pie crust into your chosen pie pan. Spoon mixture into pie shell. Scoop out 4 indentations (enough for a raw egg to be cracked into it) and then, you guessed it, crack an egg into each indentation. If you’re a stickler for perfectly round eggs, you can hard boil the 4 eggs before and place them in the pie.
Cover pie with other pie crust. Crimp edges.
Tara Hoot’s hot tip: Whatever pie pan you are using, both bottom and top crusts should extend beyond the pie plate so you have enough dough to crimp and seal the pie. If using a springform pan, I find that when I crimp, I crimp it towards the middle of the pie so that the crust doesn’t hang over the outside of the springform. If the pie dough hangs over, the crust may break off when you release the spring form.
If you’re baking a springform pie, plan on at least 90 minutes. If using a regular pie pan, plan on about 45 minutes of baking.
Slice and enjoy!