TWD:BWJ Pizza Rustica

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A Walk Through The Bible In One Year
Bringing the Story to Life

Week 10 reading plan per day:
Click on the colored link to read each day’s scripture.
Monday (Deuteronomy 17-19) Tuesday (Deuteronomy 20-22)Wednesday (Deut 23-25) Thursday (Deut 26-27)Friday (Deut 28-30) Saturday (Deut 31-32)
Sunday (Deuteronomy 33-34)

It is Easter Week and my very favorite time of the year.  I love Easter.  This week, Holy week, commemorates the events of our Lord’s last week before His death.   As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I believe according to Scripture, Jesus came back to life being raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross.  This is the time we celebrate His triumph over the grave.  We acknowledge through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life. It is my prayer that you know him as I do, as your personal savior.  Blessings for a Happy Easter!

It is Tuesdays With Dorie and I am so excited to bring you this remarkable recipe for Pizza Rustica. In her book Baking With Julia Dorie Greenspan writes, “Pizza Rustica is a savory pie with a sweet crust, a combination that sounds unlikely but tastes terrific.”  Having read that you will understand my excitement when I served Pizza Rustica for Sunday brunch and my chief culinary consultant (aka hubby) said, “Hmm, this has a slightly sweet flavor and tastes great with the cheesy filling”.  That’s just what Dorie said, well, in so many words!
I have been making quiche type dishes for a long time.  I like them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though I am not Italian, I’ve read that Pizza Rustica is a quintessential Italian holiday dish.  It is a perfect recipe to make and a beautiful dish to serve as we celebrate Holy Week. I started out with my trusty Cuisinart food processor.  I say “trusty” because this little lady is about 30 years old. My first food processor (exactly like this one) was purchased in about 1982.  I used that one to death until the mid 90’s.  I literally burned up the motor with use.  I stumbled along without one until I attended an auction two years ago and found a “new” 30 year old processor, barely used.  I was thrilled!  I know Cuisinart has been selling them all along, but they just don’t make ’em like they used to!  FYI – Julia Child was one of the first to let people in on the Cuisinart secret. She was among the first culinary experts to hail the food processor as a revolutionary kitchen appliance when it was introduced to America in 1973 by the late Cuisinart founder, Carl Sontheimer. She saw the food processor as a quick and easy way to make fine food and healthy dishes.  I totally agree with Julia!  But I digress …
The sweet crust of Pizza Rustica comes from using the food processor to finely blend flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cold butter.
Once this is well blended adding eggs makes the dough.  And what luscious dough it makes!  Unlike pie crust dough, this dough can and should be kneaded!  I love that since I tend to over-do my pie crust dough because it doesn’t like to be kneaded!
I let the dough rest just a bit while I blended the filling via my food processor.  The original recipe says to mix it up in a bowl, but then why would I, when I have my processor sitting right there?  The filling is richly wonderful with ricotta cheese, eggs, Pecorino Romano cheese, mozzarella cheese, and shredded prosciutto.  I almost substituted some sliced ham for the prosciutto.  I am cheap frugal, in that way. 🙂 The 4 ounces of prosciutto was about $6.  Yikes!  However, since I have never made Pzza Rustica before, my curiosity won out and I used the exact ingredients listed in the recipe. By the time I bought the Pecorino Romano (way expensive) I was on a roll!  I am soooo glad I did.  It was perfect in flavor and texture.
Moving on, I rolled out the soft, sweet, wonderful dough.
The filling fits just right in a 9″ inch pie plate.
Taking time to make the lattice crust is well worth the effort.  Plus, this dough is so forgiving and easy to handle.  Into the oven  — the recipe says to bake 35 to 40 minutes.  At 35 minutes the dough was still very light.  I added another 5 minutes and turned the heat from 350 degrees to 375 degrees.  I shouldn’t have turned up the heat.  The edges browned just a bit more than I would have liked for picture taking.
But for eating … it was remarkable.
Our Tuesdays With Dorie hosts for this recipe are Emily from Capital Region Dining Blog and Raelynn at The Place They Call Home.  Both of them have posted the actual recipe and would love to share it with you.  This is just one more recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking With Julia and I highly recommend you have your own copy to treasure, peruse when you don’t have enough energy to bake, and bake from when you just want the peace that comes from being in the kitchen 🙂

Many Blessings and Happy Cooking!

P.S.  A side note — this dish is quite rich and so one pie easily makes 8 servings.  We had it leftover with salad for supper.  If it is possible – it even tasted better warmed up 🙂

On the right hand side of my blog I placed a link to Amazon where you can easily purchase Dorie’s book.

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9 thoughts on “TWD:BWJ Pizza Rustica”

  1. I concur — the pizza rustica was fabulous on day 2! A good make in advance recipe. Yay!

    (Your rice crispy easter eggs are adorable!)

    Reply
  2. Glad this was a hit for you.
    What a neat find in the food processor. Up until I dropped it a couple of years ago, I used ot work with my mother’s 50+ year old beater. That was a work horse 🙂

    Reply
  3. Glad you and your chief culinary consultant liked this dish. My daughter also thought the sweetness of the crust made a nice contrast to the cheese filling. Your pie looks beautiful.

    Reply

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