Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Tarta Pascualina
A flaky double-crust pie of chard and ricotta with whole eggs baked inside, an everyday River Plate lunch.
Uruguayan · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 45 min
~275 cal · 18g protein · 14g carbs · 17g fat · 4g fiber · 5g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tarta pascualina crossed the Atlantic with Genoese immigrants, who arrived in great numbers in Uruguay and Argentina and left a deep mark on the region's food. Its name ties it to Easter (Pascua), though it is now eaten year-round as an everyday savoury pie.
The filling is chard or spinach cooked down with onion and bound with ricotta, then seasoned with nutmeg. Its signature trick is the whole eggs nestled into the filling before the top crust goes on, so each slice reveals a set yolk suspended in the green.
Traditionally the pastry had many thin layers, one for each of Christ's disciples, though home cooks now happily use two sheets. Served warm or cold, cut into wedges, it is a fixture of Uruguayan lunchboxes, picnics, and light suppers.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2 shortcrust or puff pastry sheets
2 lb chard or spinach, chopped
1 1/2 cups ricotta
6 eggs, plus more whole for the filling
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tbsp sugar, to sprinkle on the crust
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tbsp oil
Instructions
1
Blanch the chard and spinach in boiling salted water for 3 minutes, drain them, and when they are cool enough squeeze every drop of water out with your hands.
✎ Chef’s note
Blanch and squeeze rather than wilting in the pan. Chard holds an astonishing amount of water, and any of it left in the filling steams the pastry from the inside and leaves a soggy base.
2
Soften the onion and red pepper in oil, add the squeezed greens and cook them 8 to 10 minutes more, seasoning with salt, pepper and the nutmeg, then cool completely.
3
Mix the cooled greens with the ricotta and 2 beaten eggs.
✎ Chef’s note
Ricotta is the Ligurian original; many Uruguayan and Argentine versions use grated mozzarella and parmesan instead, or as well. The nutmeg is the South American signature, since the Italian original takes nothing but salt and pepper.
4
Line a tart tin with one pastry sheet and spread in the filling, then make wells and crack whole eggs into them.
✎ Chef’s note
Make a small hollow for each egg so the yolks sit level and end up centred in the slices, and season the eggs directly.
5
Lay the second pastry sheet over the top, seal and crimp the edges, and cut a couple of steam vents.
6
Brush the top with beaten egg thinned with a spoon of water, sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the pastry, and bake at 400F (200C) for about 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
✎ Chef’s note
That spoonful of sugar scattered on the crust before baking is a genuine Uruguayan touch and it is worth doing: it gives the top a faint sweet crackle against the savoury filling. Halved hard-boiled eggs laid across the filling, white side up, are the other common way to do the eggs instead of cracking them raw into wells.
Uruguayan Genoese-immigrant cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Montevideo. Mate is a routine with rules. One person prepares it and keeps hold of the gourd, refilling and passing it round in a fixed order, and each drinker finishes the whole thing before handing it back. The thermos carried under one arm is a national posture, and Uruguay is usually reckoned the heaviest consumer per head anywhere.
🗺️
Uruguay. Uruguay eats more beef per head than almost anywhere, roughly fifty kilos a person a year, and exports about three quarters of what it produces. The grill it goes on is a parrilla with an adjustable brasero at the side, where wood burns down to embers that are raked under the grate as needed, so the cook controls heat by moving coals rather than the meat.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Uruguay
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Torta FritaGolden discs of fried dough with a slit in the middle, crisp-edged and pillowy, the treat Uruguayans make whenever it rains, dusted with sugar and dunked in mate.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Steamer, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tarta Pascualina?
A flaky double-crust pie of chard and ricotta with whole eggs baked inside, an everyday River Plate lunch.
Where does Tarta Pascualina come from?
Tarta Pascualina is a Uruguayan dish from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Can Tarta Pascualina be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tarta Pascualina recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tarta Pascualina safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tarta Pascualina take to make?
About 75 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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