Matza Coperta {Italian Matzo Brei}

I wrote about Matza Coperta, the Italian cousin of matzo brei, on Instagram over the weekend, and thought it would be a worthwhile share here, too. Pardon the share of Passover recipes this week, if you don’t observe, but my guess is you might know someone who does, and decide to share this with them (or maybe even make it for them).

This being our first year observing, I hadn’t given thought to the challenges it poses when traveling and eating out, especially since we eat most of our meals at home. Wheat is in everything, and depending on your level of observance (whether you eat kitniyot or not), eating outside of the home can get very complicated.

That’s where recipes like this Matza Coperta become a life saver. It’s a thin frittata filled with soaked, drained matzo, raisins, pignoli (pine nuts), and lemon zest, and delicious served warm or at room temperature (read: makes great road food).

Matza Coperta is usually served topped with cinnamon sugar, as some people do with matzo brie.

I skipped the sugar finish, and gave mine a swirl of maple syrup. You can also use honey. The recipe is a scaled down version from Edda Servi Machlin’s Classic Italian Jewish Cooking. In it she notes her family used to make this for picnics with their Catholic neighbors in Pitigliano on Easter Monday.

I was a little skeptical about the raisins and pine nuts, and can assure you my children didn’t even give it a taste, but you know what? I loved it, and wouldn’t change a thing. I imagine if you want to give this a try, and don’t have matzo on hand, you can try it with any plain water crackers, so let me know if you decide to give it a try that way.

This recipe is now part of my new site, Simmering. It can be found here.