It beat’s me why I started singing (in my head) the very American song, Yankee Doodle while I was making this tart in Germany. “They called it macaroni” just kept reverberating in my head. It always cracked me up.
Chalk it up to delirium as a result of the heat wave and my return to the kitchen amidst long hot days.
Anyway. This is a recipe from a German magazine. It takes a bit of time to throw together but the result is worth it for a one recipe meal. Accompanied with a side salad it can feed a family of 8 or 4 with leftovers or whatever.
The crust contains ricotta cheese which was a revelation. The hardest part of this recipe was finding long macaroni. It’s readily available online but not in sever supermarkets I tried in the USA in two states. Here in Germany, it was waiting for me on the shelf on my first try.
Of course, you don’t have to go for the macaroni swirl look. Just cook up some pasta elbows and pat them down as a layer, that would work well but I was determined to get my pasta swirl on so I was saving the recipe until I could get my hands on some long macaroni.
The result is a delicious blend of pan fried spinach, onions and garlic layered with a mozzarella cream mixture between layers of pasta and all of it sitting in a creamy ricotta crust. The result of me was boiling hot, but my tummy was happy.
Macaroni Spinach Cheese Tart
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 3.5 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 egg yolk
For the Filling:
- 7 oz long macaroni
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small red onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 14 oz fresh baby spinach
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1+1/3 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup Milk
- 3 eggs
Instructions
Make the Crust:
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Beat the flour, butter, ricotta, and egg yolk together with a pinch of salt.
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Wrap in plastic cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
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Make the Filling:
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Cook the long macaroni in salt water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
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Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and stir fry until the onion turns transparent.
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Add the spinach and mix thoroughly. Stir-fry, stirring for 2 minutes until the spinach wilts.
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Season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
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Assemble the Tart:
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour a deep 10-inch tart form.
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Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out into a circle on a lightly floured work surface.
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Transfer the crust to the prepared pan and crimp the edges all the way around.
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in a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella, heavy cream, milk, and eggs. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
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Starting in the center, spiral the long macaroni to create a layer of pasta on the bottom. Cover the pasta with a layer of the cream mixture, then a layer of the cooked spinach mixture on top of the cream.
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Repeat starting and ending with a layer of macaroni. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup mozzarella on top.
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Place the torte in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
Like Savory Tarts? Try some of these recipes:
Garlic Scape Currant Tomato Tart in a Charcoal Crust
4 comments
I was really a bit disappointed with this recipe. I made the recipe exactly as directed. The crust was extremely crumbly and dry, and extremely difficult to roll out. I’m actually wondering if something was left out? I used Bucatini pasta and although it tasted fine in the recipe, it really didn’t give that nice pretty presentation I was hoping for. It would be helpful to know which pasta you used even if it’s a German or Italian brand because so often those things can be purchased online. My 10 inch tart pan didn’t really allow for three layers but that didn’t really make much of a difference. I did let it cook a little too long, so my cheese on top was very brown but not burnt. Overall, I thought the dish was kind of bland and I think I would try a different cheese to give it more flavor. I did find a similar Italian dish that used Gorgonzola. If I can find the pasta and figure out how to make it taste better I think I would make it again.
Hi Dolly. Thanks for taking the time to reach out about this recipe. I am so sorry it did not turn out the way you hoped. For the crust – It turned out perfectly for me. Maybe to try using a food scale to measure the flour next time. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams. As for the pasta, use “long macaroni”. I believe I used the “Luxury” brand and probably the Ronzoni equivalent is the “Perciatelli” shape. A deep 10-inch tart form is required for this recipe in order to incorporate all the layers. Again, thank you for your comment. I find them very helpful.
Beautiful and looks absolutely. Just want to confirm…do we not need to blind bake the crust? Will the crust be soggy without doing so?
Love the look of this recipe, Lora! Even more oomph to it than the similar Greek pastitsio ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastitsio ) . I think bucatini pasta would work well as the ‘long pasta’ you use. Such tantalizing photos !