Mina de Matza

Name: Mina de Matza
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: Makes one 20 cm pie (serves 4–6)
Cuisine: Sephardic
Ingredients: 6 matzas (about 300 g); warm water for the softening; 3 eggs (about 150 g), beaten, divided — half for the filling's binding, half for the pie's sealing and top; 2 tbsp olive oil or melted butter (about 25 g), for the dish and the brushing; 500 g ground beef or lamb; 2 onions (about 300 g), minced fine; 4 cloves garlic (about 15 g), grated; a fist of parsley (about 20 g), minced; 1 tsp cumin; ½ tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp allspice; ½ tsp chile flakes or 1 tsp harissa (#91); 1 tsp salt; black pepper; 2 tbsp tomato paste (about 30 g) or 2 grated tomatoes; 100 ml water; Optional: 100 g spinach, wilted and chopped (the spring's green), or 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced (the layer's gold)

Sephardic · Medium · Makes one 20 cm pie (serves 4–6)

The mina is the Passover pie: matzas softened briefly in water and layered like the warqa of the #38 pastilla's cousin — but softer, homelier — around a savory filling of spiced meat or vegetables, bound with egg, and baked to a set, sliceable pie. It is the festival week's own architecture: the bread that is not bread, made into the pie that carries the seder's leftovers, and every Sephardic household's own argument about the filling.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

Ingredients

half for the filling's binding, half for the pie's sealing and top

The filling (the classic meat, from the seder's own leftovers or fresh)

- **Soften the matzas briefly — the layer's law.** Each matza dipped in warm water for 15 to 20 seconds a side — no longer — until pliable but holding: the matza's architecture must bend without breaking, and the over-soaked matza tears. The dipped sheets kept on towels until the layering. - **The bridge:** the matza is the festival's own and the recipe's identity (the mina exists because of the unleavened week); the #38's warqa or the phyllo run the everyday cousin honestly at the year's other weeks. The filling rotates by the household — the meat's classic, the spinach's spring, the leftover's mercy.

Step 1. **Make the filling (15 minutes).** Brown the meat with the onions and the garlic, breaking to a fine crumble — 8 minutes; the spices, the tomato paste, and the water through, simmered 5 minutes to a moist, spoonable mixture, no loose liquid (a wet filling soaks the matza's layers); the parsley at the end, and half the beaten eggs stirred through off the heat. Checkpoint — the filling's test: moist but holding — a spoonful mounds, no pool at the spoon's edge. The matza's layers will absorb any excess, and a wet filling makes a sodden pie.

Step 2. **Layer the pie (10 minutes).** An oiled 20 cm square dish: two softened matzas laid to cover the base and overhang the rim, brushed with egg; the filling spread even; the spinach or the egg slices over if running; two more softened matzas pressed gently on top, tucked, the overhang folded, and the top brushed generously with the remaining egg and a thread of oil. Checkpoint — the pie's architecture: matza-filling-matza, the seal's egg brushed at every seam, the top's egg-shine generous — the #38's layered doctrine at the festival's homely scale, and the matza's pliability holding the whole.

Step 3. **Bake to the set (35–40 minutes at 180 °C).** Baked until the top runs deep gold and the pie's center reads set at a knife's tip — 35 to 40 minutes — rested 10 minutes before the cut. Checkpoint — eating test, cut warm to squares: the matza's soft-giving layer (the festival's bread gone tender in the pie's steam) around the filling's savory-spiced depth — the cinnamon-allspice register unmistakable, the egg's binding throughout — the top's gold crust the texture's contrast. It should taste like the festival's own architecture: the unleavened week's bread made the pie that hides it in plain sight, and the household's finest Passover argument. Chef’s Note — the mina is the Passover week's own translation layer — the layered-pie architecture (the #38 pastilla's, the lasagna's whole canon) run on the matza that the week's law permits — and the technique's law is the brief soften: the matza's 20-second dip is the pie's whole engineering, the grain's structure bent but never dissolved. The festival's cooking is the canon's most inventive seat: the constraint's week making the new architecture, and the mina is its finest proof.

Mina de Matza

Prep: 40 minutes · Cook: 40 minutes · Total: About 1 hour 30 minutes · Makes one 20 cm pie (serves 4–6)

Ingredients

6 matzas (about 300 g); warm water for the softening
3 eggs (about 150 g), beaten, divided — half for the filling's binding, half for the pie's sealing and top
2 tbsp olive oil or melted butter (about 25 g), for the dish and the brushing

The filling (the classic meat, from the seder's own leftovers or fresh)

500 g ground beef or lamb; 2 onions (about 300 g), minced fine
4 cloves garlic (about 15 g), grated; a fist of parsley (about 20 g), minced
1 tsp cumin; ½ tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp allspice; ½ tsp chile flakes or 1 tsp harissa (#91); 1 tsp salt; black pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste (about 30 g) or 2 grated tomatoes; 100 ml water
Optional: 100 g spinach, wilted and chopped (the spring's green), or 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced (the layer's gold)

Instructions

**Make the filling (15 minutes).** Brown the meat with the onions and the garlic, breaking to a fine crumble — 8 minutes; the spices, the tomato paste, and the water through, simmered 5 minutes to a moist, spoonable mixture, no loose liquid (a wet filling soaks the matza's layers); the parsley at the end, and half the beaten eggs stirred through off the heat. Checkpoint — the filling's test: moist but holding — a spoonful mounds, no pool at the spoon's edge. The matza's layers will absorb any excess, and a wet filling makes a sodden pie.
**Layer the pie (10 minutes).** An oiled 20 cm square dish: two softened matzas laid to cover the base and overhang the rim, brushed with egg; the filling spread even; the spinach or the egg slices over if running; two more softened matzas pressed gently on top, tucked, the overhang folded, and the top brushed generously with the remaining egg and a thread of oil. Checkpoint — the pie's architecture: matza-filling-matza, the seal's egg brushed at every seam, the top's egg-shine generous — the #38's layered doctrine at the festival's homely scale, and the matza's pliability holding the whole.
**Bake to the set (35–40 minutes at 180 °C).** Baked until the top runs deep gold and the pie's center reads set at a knife's tip — 35 to 40 minutes — rested 10 minutes before the cut. Checkpoint — eating test, cut warm to squares: the matza's soft-giving layer (the festival's bread gone tender in the pie's steam) around the filling's savory-spiced depth — the cinnamon-allspice register unmistakable, the egg's binding throughout — the top's gold crust the texture's contrast. It should taste like the festival's own architecture: the unleavened week's bread made the pie that hides it in plain sight, and the household's finest Passover argument.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Layers tore at the layering	Matza over-soaked	The 20-second dip, tested on the first sheet
Pie wet, never set	Filling's liquid loose	The mound-holds filling; the egg's binding
Top pale, the crust absent	Egg's brushing shy	The generous brush, the oil's thread

Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations

- The baked mina keeps 2 days refrigerated (the reheat a covered 20 minutes at 160 °C — a fair second slice); the filling keeps 3 days for the next layering. The #38 pastilla is the everyday's layered master. - Variations: the spinach-and-feta's spring, the leftover-turkey's mercy week. The matza's week runs its own; the filling's household's dial turns.