Exactly three years ago, I started this blog.

I did not know where this adventure would take me, and here I am three years later. A big thank you to all of you who have been following me in my culinary adventures. It is always a pleasure to interact with you and your kind comments are always welcome.

My sister-and-law asked me if I would have any use for leftover phyllo pastry.

I immediately said yes, and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. You see, I wanted to make a traditional Easter pie filled with spinach, ricotta, parmesan and whole eggs, but JB doesn’t appreciate that pie so much.

I thought that this savoury pie would be more appropriate for our taste buds and I was right.

This is an original Tuscan recipe, usually made with homemade dough, using white flour, olive oil and a bit of water to put it together. I personally think that this type of dough is too dry, and I don’t like it. Using phyllo pastry instead made for a beautiful flaky pastry, and although not traditional, still had the olive oil flavour it needed.

The only thing I kept traditional is that the filling, including the swiss chard, has to be raw when making the pie. For this to work, you need to remove the excess moisture from the chard, by salting it and leaving it in a colander for an hour or so. Doing this, the chard will wilt, and you can proceed to make the filling. This is why some people call this pie: the salted pie of Pontremoli.

Several countries have a recipe like this one (usually using spinach) in their repertoire: just think of Greece with its famous spanakopita, and Turkey with its famous Borek. Now you have a Tuscan version for your repertoire. Contemporary versions could also include finely sliced onions or leeks, which I decided to leave out this time around.