Paskha, Ordinary (Molded Curd-Cheese Easter Dish)

History

Paskha is the molded fresh-curd dish at the heart of Russian Orthodox Easter, eaten to break the roughly forty-day Great Lent that forbids dairy, eggs, and butter. Made from pressed tvorog enriched with sour cream, butter, and sugar, it is packed into a wooden mold called a pasochnitsa and turned out as a truncated pyramid. The mold's inner walls are carved with the letters ХВ — Христосъ Воскресе, "Christ is Risen" — together with a cross, spear, and sponge, a palm branch, and a dove, which emboss the finished dish. The pyramid is read as Christ's tomb: sources describe its shape as symbolizing Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre where the Resurrection occurred, while others read it as the Trinity and the Church. It is served with the tall kulich bread, the pair together restoring the fats and dairy renounced through the fast. Molokhovets standardizes rather than originates this calendar dish. Her "ordinary paskha" (No. 3204) is the plain, uncooked form — pressed curd bound with sour cream, butter, salt, and sugar, weighted under a stone in a cloth-lined wooden mold, optionally scented with vanilla, lemon zest, almond, or raisins — heading a short run of paskha variants she codifies.

Ingredients

• funt tvorog (fresh moist curd cheese)
• stakan smetana (sour cream)
• funt butter
• tsp salt
• stakan sugar
• flavoring (optional)

Instructions

1. Press 7 funts fresh moist tvorog for 10-12 hours, then rub through a sieve.
2. Mix in 1 stakan freshest sour cream, 1/2 funt fresh butter, 2 tsp salt, and 1/2 stakan or more sugar to taste, until completely free of lumps.
3. Pack into a napkin-lined wooden paskha mold, top with a board and heavy stone, and press 24 hours; turn out carefully. Optionally add vanilla, lemon zest, ground almonds, or raisins.