A Square Pie for Easter

 Yesterday (Good Friday) my spouse made a Pizza Rustica, a pie that somewhat defeated us the first time we tried to make it.   So we tried again.

This is a pie (as I've blogged before) from my spouse's childhood.  His mother baked this, and other special Italian pies, for Easter but we don't have her recipe.  The usual recipes have a double crust, but we are on Weight Watchers, so decided to skip the upper crust.  Some people use pie crust, and others use pizza dough for the crust.  In other words, this savory pie is easy to customize.

We didn't need a big pie, so decided to use 80% of the recipe we used in 2016.  Additionally, we no longer own a springform pan, so finally decided to try to make it for a 9 inch square cake pan, which we did have.

And now, for another episode of why I will never be a food blogger.

The cut back recipe we used: (sorry, metric readers, you are on your own)

1 refrigerated pie crust, brought to room temperature
3/4 pounds cooked ham, diced (other people use pepperoni, or salami, or a combination)
1 1/2 lb ricotta cheese (we used ricotta con latte, which is a creamy ricotta and seems rich, although it doesn't have more calories than whole milk ricotta).
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, diced
4 duck eggs (chicken eggs are fine; we just happened to have them)
1handful chopped fresh Italian flat leaved parsley
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan romano cheese

Ingredients -  I forgot to take a picture with the mozzarella cheese.  Anyway, moving on, spouse mixed all the ingredients together except for the pie crust.

 

First comes mixing ricotta with Parmesan Romano cheese.

Adding the parsley.

Adding egg and ham, and mozzarella.  Be sure the mixture is well combined.

Spouse then fit the refrigerated pie dough into the square cake pan.  It took a bit of work because you are fitting a round crust into a square pan.

Add the raw mixture. Cover with foil (because no upper crust).  Spouse baked at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes and then baked at 375.  Spouse took off the foil and let it brown.  He had to play with the temperature.  Afterwards, he may have done 350 for at least an hour and then let it brown without the foil

Baked result.  The light over the stove gave a yellowish cast.

When we serve it to family tomorrow, we'll find out how well this worked.

Wishing my readers who celebrate Easter tomorrow a peaceful Easter.