Parduals or Casadinas are small cheese tarts that used to be the typical Sardinian cakes for Easter. In the past these cheesecakes were made in bulk by the women of the family, today you can find them in every bakery or cake shop. Naturally the homemade version remains the most appetising. There are many variations of the recipe all over the island, in the south of Sardinia they are made with ricotta cheese and are called Pardulas. In the north of Sardinia the cheesecakes might look the same but they have a completely different taste as the cheese used is fresh pecorino, which is much stronger in flavour. These are called Casadinas, which in the Sardinian language means little cheesecakes.

Ingredients

1kg ricotta cheese

1kg flour

200 g of lard (vegetarians can use vegetable oil)

300 g of sugar

4 eggs

raisins (as much as you like)

2 saffron sachets, two lemons peel and one orange peel

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Preparation

Make the dough like for fresh pasta mixing the flour with water, eggs, a pinch of salt and the lard. Work the dough forcefully then leave to rest (you can resort to a machine for this step). In the meanwhile whisk the ricotta and add the saffron, sugar , raisins, orange peel and lemon peel mixing well.

Take the dough again and stretch it with a rolling pin to make sheets of pastry 5mm thick. Cut discs of 5 cm diameter out of the dough. Place a spoon of filling in the middle and with your fingers pull up the edges around the filling leaving the top part uncovered. Sprinkle with sugar and place in preheated oven at 200 C until golden. These cheese tarts are best consumed at room temperature.