Sunday Dinner: Pizza Rustica
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Tonight I made one of Tea’s favourites and something I haven’t made in quite a while. It’s called ‘Pizza Rustica’, though it is more of an Italian version of quiche than a pizza. You are going to want a deep pie pan, a 8” x 1 1/2” pan if you have one. If not you will probably need to adjust the recipe for the size of your pan.
Pastry:
- 1 3/4 cups of white flour (I actually used half spelt half white flour)
- 7 tbls of butter (ideally chilled) in small cubes
- 1 egg yolk
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup of whole milk or light cream (I pity the fool who uses skim milk)
Basically add the butter to the flower and salt and mix it with your hands (actually I use the dough blades on my food processor) until it resembles something like bread crumbs. Then add the egg yolk and whole milk and knead it into a ball of dough. Stick it in the fridge covered with saran wrap until you need it.
Filling:
- 2 cups of Ricotta cheese
- 1 cup of mozzerella (I used bocconcini if I have it)
- 2/3 cup of pecorino, romano, or parmagiano
- 3 eggs
- Some fillings - I used Bresola which is air dried beef, you can use ham, prosciutto, spinach, etc. you get the idea, it’s just like a quiche so use what you want in the filling
- Herbs for flavour (optional)
This is pretty simple, just mix it all together. Now you should start your oven at this point and pre-heat it to 400F.
Take 2/3rds of the dough and roll it out so you can line the pan, cut off any excess and add the filling. Now roll out enough to top the pie and cut off any excess again.
Cook for 20 minutes at 400F and then for 20 minutes more at 350F.