Romanian Pască

Brioche tart with curd cheese, an Easter culinary tradition in Romania

Welcome to Recipes and Stories from Eastern Europe. I'm Irina Georgescu, a James Beard award-winning author specialising in Eastern European cuisine. My newsletter offers free recipes and travel inspiration from this part of Europe, including Romania and Transylvania, where I’m from. You can support this free publication by purchasing my books, available in bookstores and online worldwide: 'Carpathia', 'Tava' and 'Danube'* Thank you.

Nothing compares to Romanian Pască in Eastern Europe. This rich brioche is filled with a mixture of curd cheese, sugar, eggs and sultanas. Baked specifically for Easter, it is taken to church to be blessed during the service on Easter Eve and enjoyed as a tradition to break Lent. In my family, this is how we mark the start of Easter: at midnight, with a slice of Pască.

Photo Jamie Orlando Smith for the book ‘Carpathia, Food from the Heart of Romania’

Easter Vigil on the Evening of the Holy Saturday

The celebration begins the night before Easter. People gather at churches across the country just before midnight. You don’t need to be religious to participate; it’s a wonderful opportunity to share a special moment with loved ones. Some travel to specific churches or monasteries in Romania for the event, while others, like my family, go to their local church. I preferred staying local so I could return home as quickly as possible and enjoy a slice of Pască, breaking my fast for the first time in 40 days. For many people in Romania, Easter begins with a slice of Pască at midnight.

Cristos a înviat - Adevărat a înviat

Masses of people gather at church to receive the holy light. In Greek Orthodoxy, this miracle occurs at the Cathedral of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The flame of the Holy Light ignites spontaneously. At midnight, every Orthodox priest around the world emerges from the altar carrying the holy light to share with the gathered crowds. He lights the candles held by those closest to him, who then turn to light the candles of the people behind them, who do the same for those beside them, and so on.

In just a few minutes, a radiant glow envelops the church, and the priest proclaims: ‘Christ has risen.’ The congregation replies in unison: ‘Indeed he has risen.’ I have always found it remarkable how this ancestral bond of faith and community weaves together with the flickering candlelight, uniting everyone. You sense that you are part of something greater than yourself. Afterwards, we all return home, trying to keep the candle burning for as long as we can, often for days. We place it carefully near the icon in our homes, whispering a wish for health, happiness, and the fulfilment of our dreams. We say: Cristos a înviat - Chirst has risen. Then…we eat.

Easter Eve Food Blessing

People gather a small variety of dishes they've prepared for Easter lunch, arrange them carefully in baskets, and bring them to church for a blessing during the evening liturgy. In this way, they know that the next day, their food at home is also blessed. If you peek inside, you’ll see dyed eggs, Pască, cozonac - walnut filled bread, drob - lamb meatloaf, sausages, and a little pot with salt (symbolic of the salt of the earth) and a candle. They would have worked since the previous Thursday to have everything done by Saturday night. Why Thursday? Because Friday is Holy and we can’t do any work, and Saturday is usually for cleaning the house. Cleaning for Easter can easily make the subject of a small booklet. The baskets are then taken home or, if they were prepared for such purpose, given as alms. Before they go, people also make sure they take ‘prescură’, which is the Eucharist.

Holy Thursday Baking

Many people prefer to do all the baking on Joia Mare, which means the Holy Thursday. They prepare cozonac, a traditional walnut-filled bread also enjoyed at Christmas, along with Pască and dyed eggs.

Walking home from the market on such a Thursday, Mum and I would go past apartment blocks, trying to guess what people were cooking in their kitchen by the wafting aromas in the street. A vinegary scent? They must be dyeing eggs. Onions cooking? It’s maybe Drob, a minced lamb loaf wrapped in caul, looking like delicate lace. Or stufat, a lamb stew with spring onions. Turning onto our lane, a mild spring breeze brought warm scents of sugar, butter, cheese, and lemon zest baking together: Pască, definitely. We inhaled deeply, guessing the other ingredients in the recipe: rum! We arrived home feeling hungry and excited to bake our own, anticipating the feast to come in a few days. As I write this, I imagine turning and looking back at that lane with trees blossoming and roses in front of our apartment. I see through the window our tiny kitchen where Mum is busying herself with Easter preparations, and I realise how much I hold onto these sweet memories in every moment of my life because, of course, Mum is gone, and I am not home for Easter.

Romanian Easter celebrations inspired me to write cookery books about our culinary customs. In the UK, customs differ, and while I enjoy hot cross buns and Simnel cake very much, I also miss our Easter Pască. Here is the recipe:

The Recipe:

For the dough:

300g bread flour

40g caster sugar

10g yeast

165g full fat milk

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt

70g melted butter

For the filling

200g curd cheese, twarog or ricotta

150g sour cream

25g caster (fine) sugar

2 egg yolks from medium size eggs

zest from 1 large lemon

1 tbsp vanilla extract

75g sultanas soaked in 75ml warm rum for 30 min, then drained (optional)

For baking:

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp milk

Method:

To prepare the brioche dough, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, milk, and yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Knead on medium speed until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Incorporate a third of the melted butter and knead until well mixed, then repeat with the remaining butter. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1½ hours, at around 21–22°C.

To make the filling, combine all the ingredients together.

Grease a 25cm (10in) pastry ring or springform tin with the base removed, and place it onto a non-stick baking tray lined with baking paper.

Divide the dough into two pieces, and roll one half to fit the size of the springform ring. Place it inside the ring, ensuring the dough touches the sides. Divide the remaining half into two pieces. Roll these into two ropes long enough to surround the inside of the ring. Twist them together and position them inside the ring or tin, creating an attractive border around the sides. Cover it with a clean kitchen towel while the oven heats up to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Brush the edges with the egg wash, then pour in the filling. Bake for 25–30 minutes on a lower rack until the filling is soft and slightly wobbly in the centre. If the dough darkens too much, cover it with foil. When finished, remove from the oven, lift the pastry ring, and transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool.

Curd cheese in Romanian Easter baking

Fermented dairy serves as our secret ingredient in Eastern European baking. In Romania, cattle and sheep roam the lush pastures of the Carpathian mountains, making dairy a staple in everyday cooking. Curd cheese, known as brânză de vaci (cows’ milk cheese), is a fresh, unpressed cheese that is young and crumbly with a tangy flavour. It enhances doughs and batters, often combined with sour cream, elevating recipes to create irresistible, soft textures that hold fruits, jams, or walnut fillings. Additionally, it is a favoured ingredient for both sweet and savoury pies, buns, doughnuts, and pancakes. In essence, curd cheese is integral to our culinary tradition, especially at Easter. You can see this in my Eastern European baking book, Tava. The photos below are from Tava and the recipes use curd cheese (or a more accessible alternative, ricotta)

Clockwise from the top: baked curd cheesecake, plăcintă cu brânza - curd cheese and sultanas pie, curd cheese buns, sweet curd cheese and noodles filo pie, curd cheese filled doughnuts and sweet curd cheese polenta cake.

I’ll be posting more in the next few days on my Instagram because I worry that I will overwhelm you with emails here on Substack. This is my account https://www.instagram.com/irina.r.georgescu/

An Easter digression: Simnel Cake vs Jemna

The term comes from the Latin ‘simila’, meaning fine white flour. It also refers to various German bread rolls known as Semmel and the Easter Simnel cake in the UK. In Romania, it evolved into ‘Jemna,’ and it is a traditional wedding bread baked specifically for the newlyweds. At the ceremony, they must pull it apart together using just one hand, and the one who takes the bigger piece is thought to have more authority in the household. This bread is then carefully divided into pieces to be shared with the guests as a sign of good fortune. Although Jemna is commonly associated with weddings, it is also present in traditional village festivities and can take various forms, including square shapes, spirals, or shapes resembling birds' nests. There is a recipe for the latter in my book Danube, together with a dating ritual ;) here.

Gifts for Easter

In Romania, Easter is a little like Christmas. We exchange gifts that don’t necessarily have to be chocolate—they can also be books. So, if you are like us, here are some helpful links to the three books I’ve written so far about the culinary story of Eastern Europe, with a focus on Romania.

Danube is a journey along the River Danube and the story of its riverlands in Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria. You will learn how people cook at home in over 100 (mostly vegetarian) recipes. Danube UK here or here and Danube US here or here. Of course, also at Omnivore Books, Now Serving LA and Book Larder.

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Tava is a baking and desserts book (so not just baking) that tells the ethnic story of Transylvania in 100 recipes. Tava UK here or here and Tava US here or here.

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Carpathia has staple dishes that you can find in restaurants and also homes if you travel to Romania. Carpathia UK here and here Carpathia US here and here.

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Thank you to everyone for subscribing to my newsletter, reading the posts, and enjoying the recipes. Thank you for liking what I write and for sharing. I appreciate you all for being such a wonderful and supportive group.

Wishing you a delicious Easter, if you are celebrating, and bon appetit.

Irina X