A Marbled Meat Pie Masterpiece
Pizza Rustica
*Recipe follows story
*This piece was written in April of 2011 on my original blog
If there’s anything that takes me back to the Easter Sunday’s of my past, it’s Pizza Rustica. Pizza Rustica is a traditional Italian meat pie served on Easter (but it really can be eaten any time of year). Imagine quiche lorraine on crack. Or as, Mindy Saraco, pork and cheese aficionado, put it: Pizza Rustica is like Lard Bread on steroids. Lard Bread is meat and cheese stuffed bread and this is its dirty baked pie counterpart. Let yourself get lost and imagine a cured meat and cheese cornucopia which includes: prosciutto, sopressata, boiled ham, pancetta, provolone, ricotta salata, locatelli, mozzarella and ricotta – all baked into a buttery homemade pastry shell (with 12 eggs to bind all the goodness together – in the pie and to your arteries). There are variations on the meat combinations (and the cheese too), but I went with what I remembered from taste memory. Taste Memory: when I sit in silence, stare into space, then close my eyes until I can picture the food of my childhood. After about 10 minutes, taste memory kicks in - wherein I start tasting the food, sometimes salivating, and recalling ingredients. This is my life.
When I went into my local pork store to buy the ingredients for the pizza rustica, I told the kid behind the counter what I needed and in turn he asked how I knew of the meat and cheese marbled madness. I told him my grandma used to make it for Easter. His response (in the softest Italian meets Queens accent): keeping tradition is beautiful. It’s nice to know. And while I don’t really care much for holiday’s anymore, I do care about memories of my family. I’m overly sentimental and nostalgic; and I can’t write a card without composing a smallish novella on the inside. Sometimes I even cook when I’m not hungry just because I was reminded, at some point during my day, of something or someone. It’s not nostalgia to the point of being stuck and not moving forward, but it’s an emotional movement and dedication to keeping parts of my rich family history alive; well, that, and changing my once sad story with food and addiction.
I went home and passed the time quite slowly and with intention. The Avett Brothers (Live, Volume 3) kept me company and received two rounds of play as I prepared the pastry dough and rolled it out; while I diced the meat and cheese in harmony withe the Avett’s harmonies. Once the pizza rustica was taken to the oven for baking, I went with Wilco Being There. Discs 1 and 2 were played all the way through the first round of baking, the pause to egg wash, the return to the oven, and the clean up. Silence rounded out the night, when I was too pooped to stand - and just sat in my couch breathing in the smell of butter, cheese and pork becoming one.
In years past, Easter included Channon and myself, but this year there was a happy addition of Eve and Dikenta. We four ate with my front door open, exposing ourselves and our meal to people passing by. My little apartment, a box. I imagined, all the time, that I lived inside of an oven. The sun shone directly into the apartment door and front windows, falling and on to our faces and plates. We watched my landlord’s kids run back and forth on the sidewalk, playing and laughing Easter Sunday antics. As they ran and laughed, inside of my open door oven apartment, I cut firsts and seconds of the pizza rustica. Eve brought roasted cauliflower that I could’ve gobbled on all night and Channon brought the makings for a marvelous salad and dessert. Easter Sunday was the most filled my apartment has felt in a while. It was the most filled I’d felt in cooking in a while. Everything about the day and the moments throughout the day felt real and fraught with emotion. I was sharing food with friends that understood where everything I made and did was coming from. I was sharing food with friends that love a well prepared meal equally, if not as much as I do.
Fourteen pieces of foil wrapped meat pie have invaded my freezer. A freezer already packed with containers of short rib drippings, sausage swaddled lentils, pancetta packed ribolita, roasted vegetable tortellinis and homemade pappardelle. Every week I think about taking a break from cooking and grocery shopping - eating what’s in my freezer, but cooking and the thought of it - even when I’m tired - makes me feel too complete to ever stop.
I hope you dig the pig as much as my family, friends and I do.
*I referenced a recipe from the NY Times and followed it strictly for the purpose of making a solid pastry and for method.
*After phone calls with my mom and my Aunt Jo, the filling was tweaked to meet the Corrado standards.
*Photos courtesy of Channon Hodge. I was pooped. I cooked. Taking photos was too much to handle.
Pizza Rustica
For the Dough
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pound chilled salted butter, cut into large pieces
5 large eggs, beaten
For the Filling
12 oz. prosciutto (¼-inch dice)
8 oz. boiled ham (¼-inch dice)
8 oz. pancetta (¼-inch dice)
8 oz. soppressata (¼-inch dice)
1 lb. fresh mozzarella (¼-inch dice)
4 oz. provolone (¼-inch dice)
4 oz. ricotta salata (¼ inch dice)
4 oz. Locatelli (grated)
2 lbs. ricotta
12 large eggs, beaten
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large egg, beaten, for brushing crust
For the Dough
-In a large bowl, whisk together 6 cups flour and the salt
-Using a pastry cutter, large fork, or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
-Add eggs and knead for 1 minute
-Add about 1 ¼ cups ice water, a little at a time, to form a cohesive dough
-Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it forms a large smooth ball, about 5 minutes
-Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes
For the Filling
-Mix the meats, cheeses, the 12 eggs and pepper in a large bowl
-Heat oven to 350 degrees
-Divide the dough into two pieces: two-thirds for the bottom crust and one-third for the top
-On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger portion of the dough into a rectangle to line the bottom and sides of a 10-by-15-inch glass baking dish, with some overhang
-Add the filling and smooth it lightly
-Moisten the edges of the dough with a little water.
-Roll out the remaining dough to cover the top of the dish with some overhang
-Trim off excess dough and crimp the edges to seal
-Poke several sets of holes across the top with a fork
-Bake for 45 minutes
-Remove from the oven and brush top and edges with the beaten egg, then return to the oven until golden brown, another hour
-Let pie cool completely before serving