Monday, April 2, 2012

TWD: Pizza Rustica


So a couple food-related things you will eventually learn about me: I prefer savory over sweet. I love cheese. And as brunch is my favorite meal, I love anything that is remotely quiche-like.

Is it any wonder I loved Pizza Rustica?


I've been excited to make this dish since the day I first flipped through Baking with Julia, and I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed. Assembly was super easy ... once I got this little guy down for a nap.

How dare you attempt to make dough instead of playing with me?!
The dough called for an entire stick of butter. I think that's pretty apparent in looking at the picture below.



I stuck to the recipe exactly as it was written. The filling called for ricotta, three eggs (hence this dish's likeness to quiche), Pecorino Romano, mozzarella, prosciutto, parsley and pepper.


Another random food fact about me? I am not a fan of Parmesan cheese. At least not the cheap stuff you find in the grocery store. (And I don't mean the stuff that comes in the green canisters - we won't even go there.) For every day pasta use, I stick to Pecorino Romano. I was thrilled to see that this recipe didn't use Parmesan.


Once the filling was made, I was to divide the dough into two pieces and roll out the larger piece for the crust. I've decided not to include a photo of the disaster that was my dough transfer. Let's just pretend it went smoothly and I did not have to piece together about 35 clumps of dough.




We then had to cut the remaining dough into thin strips, which would form a lattice over the pie. I do not yet own a ruffle-edged pastry wheel, so I used my pizza cutter. 

(Cue close-up shot so as to again avoid showing my piece-mealed lattice. I blame the amount of butter used in the dough, and not my lackluster pastry skills.)


Upon taking it out of the oven, I dug in right away. The filling was absolutely delicious (not at all too cheesy, as I was just a smidge worried about), I loved the saltiness of the prosciutto, and the mix of the buttery sweet crust with the savory filling was completely satisfying. 

Next time I'll include spinach and perhaps some roasted red peppers in the filling, and I'll serve an arugula salad on the side.

For the recipes, please visit the blogs of this week's hosts - Capital Region Dining Blog and The Place They Call Home.


13 comments:

  1. Looks fabulous. Love your blog.
    Lisa

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  2. I too had issues with the dough. I think it should have been chilled first before rolling. Great post.

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  3. Your pizza rustica looks beautiful

    Ulrike @Küchenlatein

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  4. I love it - BRUNCH is your favorite meal! I would highly recommend the addition of spinach, and as your blog name suggests, just a pinch of nutmeg.

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  5. Looks great, I'm glad you weren't disappointed :) your kid looks really cute too :)

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  6. It looks delicious! We use pecorino romano in place of parmesan in our house too, it is just so much tastier! I had a toddler clinging onto my legs and trying to pull ingredients off the counter while I was cooking this recipe, wonderfully cute little helpers :)

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  7. Love your pics (especially the little helper)

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  8. I got a little chuckle reading how you pieced together the dough. I had the same problem. Great job!

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  9. I love this one too..so delicious! the dough for the pie crust is very forgiving!

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  10. Very lovely.
    Piecing together dough is not an uncommon occurence in my house :-)

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  11. I'm glad it was a hit! Looks delicious!

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  12. It looks great! I love the idea of spinach and peppers for next time! I hate it when I roll something out and it doesn't transfer well. I also just pretend it didn't happen. :)

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  13. We had an arugula salad (with radish and bell peppers) along side ours and while i wasn't crazy about the sweet crust, the peppery greens did compliment it quite well!

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