What to eat during the week of Passover, when so many dishes are forbidden, has occupied the minds of Jewish cooks for thousands of years.

For Sephardi cooks, the answer is clear: You make mina. Mina is a Passover pie made with layers of matzah encasing a filling of either meat, cheese or spinach. The recipe’s adaptability — any savory pie, quiche or pashtida can serve as inspiration — combined with the convenience of store-bought matzah, makes this dish incredibly simple to prepare.

However, this ease was not always the case. In Helene Jawhara Piñer’s new cookbook “Matzah and Flour” she cites a 1505 Inquisition trial from the Spanish town of Almazán. Gabriel and Graçiana were accused of preparing unleavened bread and meat pies using lamb “after the last Easter celebration,” around the time of Passover. The trial records state: “Graçiana kneads dough without yeast, with cold water, and makes cakes with lamb (pastels de carnero).” Notably, Graçiana made similar pies throughout the year but incorporated yeast into the dough on those occasions.

Interestingly, meat pies were among the foods identified as Jewish by the Inquisition, according to “Secrecy and Deceit” by David M. Gitlitz. Graçiana’s lamb pie could be an early version of mina — only instead of using a homemade unleavened dough, today’s version relies on matzah.

Meat minas can be found across the Sephardi world. Turkish Jews make “mina de carne” (or “karne”), a version similar to the recipe included here, sometimes called “mina del Pesah” or “mina de masa” (matzah). Sephardi Jews from Egypt also prepare mina, sometimes called “maiena,” with meat.

Greek Jews have a particularly interesting variation known as “mina de kordero,” a matzah pie assembled like mina but filled with cooked and chopped lamb shoulder mixed with chopped lettuce, green onions and eggs. Another Greek version, “megina,” closely resembles the Turkish mina de carne but includes fresh dill for added flavor. (North African Jews make meat innards pies — think brains and livers — called megina, which they prepare for special occasions. Though the name is similar, these pies do not contain matzah and belong to a different culinary tradition.)

In “Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen,” Joyce Goldstein includes a similar Passover pie called “scacchi.” The primary difference is that the matzah does not encase the meat filling but is layered like lasagna. There are also non-Jewish Italian stuffed meat pies or breads called scaccia or sciachiatta, suggesting that the Jewish scacchi is a kosher-for-Passover adaptation of these traditional dishes.

All these variations highlight how versatile mina can be, so I encourage you to make it your own. Substitute with vegan ground beef for a vegetarian version; replace the potatoes with sweet potatoes or squash; fry eggplant cubes until golden and gently mix them into the meat filling; or create a fully vegetarian (and pareve) mina with grated zucchini or cooked cauliflower instead of beef. As long as you wrap it with soaked, tender matzah, you have a mina that’s perfect for any day of the holiday week.

Notes: 

• You can make the meat filling two to three days ahead. 
• You can assemble and pour the egg mixture on top a day ahead and then bake the day of. 

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