Timpana

Hard·55 min active + 1 hour 5 min resting

Malta's baked macaroni pie — macaroni in a rich beef-and-tomato ragù bound with egg and cheese, encased entirely in shortcrust or puff pastry and baked until the crust is golden and the filling sliceable.

Egg

Timpana is the Maltese baked pasta pie, a festive dish showing the Sicilian-Italian influence (cf. timballo). The pastry case distinguishes it from a plain baked pasta.

Cut a wedge of timpana and it holds its shape — a golden pastry shell around a dense slice of macaroni bound in beef ragù, egg, and cheese. Bite: the crust is crisp and buttery, the filling savory and rich, the egg-and-cheese binding the pasta into a sliceable whole, the ragù deep with tomato and bacon. Festive, substantial, and beloved — the Maltese Sunday-and-celebration centerpiece.

Boiling the macaroni just shy of al dente keeps it from going mushy during the long bake. Beaten egg and cheese set on heating, binding the loose pasta into a firm, sliceable mass. The pastry case seals in moisture and bakes into a crisp shell, turning a pasta bake into a true pie.

Variations

With chicken livers in the ragù. With peas and hard-boiled egg. Puff pastry instead of shortcrust. With aubergine. Ross il-forn (baked rice) variant without pastry. With a clove-spiced ragù.

On the Palate

Where Timpana sits in the Maltese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 8

How it's made

8 steps · 55 min active + 1 hour 5 min waiting

1
10 min
Brown 400 g minced beef with 1 chopped onion in olive oil.
2
27 min
Stir in 2 tbsp tomato paste and 2 chopped tomatoes; simmer 25 min into a thick ragù.
3
12 min
Boil 400 g macaroni until just under al dente; drain.
Watch out
Boil the macaroni just shy of al dente — it keeps cooking through the long bake, and fully soft now turns to mush in the pie.
4
8 min
Mix the macaroni with the ragù, 2 beaten eggs, 100 g grated cheese, and 80 g chopped bacon; cool slightly.
Watch out
Let the mix cool before folding in the beaten egg — stir egg into a hot pan and it scrambles instead of binding the pasta into a sliceable mass.
5
6 min
Line a deep dish with rolled-out pastry, leaving overhang.
6
3 min
Fill with the macaroni mixture and level it.
7
5 min
Cover with a pastry lid, seal and trim the edges, and cut a steam vent.
Watch out
Cut a steam vent in the pastry lid before baking — without it the trapped steam swells and cracks the crust open.
8
60 min
Brush with egg and bake at 190°C for 45 min until deep golden; rest 15 min before slicing.
Watch out
Rest 15 minutes before slicing — the filling needs to set, or the first cut spills a loose, steaming heap.