From Newsgroup: rec.food.cooking

PIZZA RUSTICA
San Felese Easter pie

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This dish is traditional in the contributor's family at Easter time. He was unsure of the spelling of the family's Italian name for the pie, but says it sounds something like “Pizza Gain”; his father translated it as “full pie.”

The recipe originated in the town of San Fele, east of Naples.

Yield

Serves 12.

Ingredients

Cheese Filling

* 2 lb ricotta cheese, 1 kg
* 3 large eggs
* 1/4 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded or chopped, 100 g
* 6 Tbsp Romano cheese, grated, 25 g
* 6 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, 5 g
* 1 1/2 Tbsp dried mint leaves, 25 ml
Use spearmint, not peppermint.
* 1/2 tsp black pepper, 2.5 ml
* Salt, to taste
The amount depends on the saltiness of the cheeses.

Meat Filling

* 1 lb Italian sausage, 500 g
Use mild or sweet sausage.
* 2 oz Italian dry salami, thinly sliced, 60 g
* 2 oz prosciutto, thinly sliced, 60 g
Another ham may be substituted.

Pizza

* 1 1/2 lb pizza dough, 700 g
If making your own dough, use about 3 cups, 300 g, of flour.
* Flour, for the pan and rolling
* 1 egg, separated

Method

1. Put the ricotta and 3 eggs into a large bowl.

2. Stir until well mixed.

3. Blend in the mozzarella, Romano, parsley, dried mint, black pepper, and salt to taste.

4. Slice the Italian sausage into rounds about 3/8 inch, 7 mm, thick.

5. Brown the sausage in a little oil until cooked through.

6. Drain the sausage and discard the grease.

7. Cut the salami and prosciutto into narrow strips about 1 x 1/4 inches, approximately 2 x 1/2 cm.

8. Prepare, thaw, or unwrap the pizza dough.

9. Mix the cooked sausage, salami, and prosciutto into the cheese filling.

10. Divide the dough and roll it into two disks.

11. Make one disk large enough to completely line a 10-inch, 25-cm, round cake pan.

12. Make the second disk large enough to cover the top.

13. Lightly flour the cake pan.

14. Place the larger dough disk into the pan, molding it so that it completely lines the bottom and sides with at least 1/2 inch, 1 cm, hanging over the edge.

15. Fill the crust with the cheese-and-meat mixture.

16. Leave about 1/2 inch, 1 cm, of space below the top of the pan to allow the filling to expand.

17. Wet the exposed edge of the bottom dough with egg white.

18. Place the second disk of dough over the filling.

19. Pinch the two pieces of dough together and trim neatly to make a seal.

20. Brush the top of the pie with egg yolk.

21. Puncture the top in several places with a knife. Make the holes large enough that they will not close during baking.

22. Bake at 350 degrees F, 175 degrees C, for about 1 hour.

23. The pie is done when the top is well browned but not burned.

24. Remove the pie from the pan.

25. Cool on a wire rack.

26. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

This recipe makes a very large pie. The contributor could not find a cake pan large enough and used a cast-iron frying pan instead.

For a smaller pie, the source suggests using half the ingredients in a 7-inch, 18-cm, pan, with a little extra dough.

If possible, grate the Romano cheese yourself. The contributor strongly prefers freshly grated Romano to pre-grated cheese.

The dried mint should be spearmint, commonly sold simply as “mint.” Peppermint is specifically warned against because its flavor is wrong for this dish.

Italian sausage here means fresh, uncured, uncooked sausage and must be cooked before eating. Depending on the region, the less-spicy version may be called either “sweet” or “mild.”

The contributor's homemade Italian sausage uses pork containing about 20% fat, fennel seeds, salt, and a small amount of red pepper flakes, coarsely ground and stuffed into natural hog casings.

If Italian sausage is unavailable, the source suggests seasoning ground pork similarly and forming it into small patties.

The cheese filling without the meats is also the contributor's standard filling for lasagna, manicotti, ravioli, and similar dishes.

Any leftover filling can be used to make calzone: place some filling on a small disk of pizza dough, fold it over, seal, and bake.

Verified Recipe Note: The original ingredient markup uses “\(14” for 1/4, “\(12” for 1/2, and “1\(12” for 1 1/2. These have been converted here for readability.

Verified Recipe Note: The pie is assembled with pizza dough rather than conventional pie pastry. It has a full bottom-and-side crust plus a sealed dough top.

Verified Recipe Note: The sausage is cooked and drained before it is mixed with the cheeses. The salami and prosciutto are added as thin strips.

Verified Recipe Note: The egg listed under the pizza section is separated: the white seals the crust edges and the yolk is brushed over the top for browning.

Verified Recipe Note: The source deliberately calls for several knife punctures in the top crust so steam can escape during baking.

Rating

* Difficulty: Moderate
* Time: 30 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking
* Precision: Approximate measurement OK

Contributor

Joe Petolino
Chronon Computer Co.
Mountain View, CA
sun!chronon!petolino

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Origin Note

This recipe comes from the USENET Cookbook project, a moderated electronic recipe collection distributed through early Internet newsgroups. The original was written in the project's structured recipe markup, where PIZZA-RUSTICA was the recipe key and M marked it as a main dish.

The preserved entry lists the recipe as last modified on 17 Apr 1986 and posted to mod.recipes on 11 Jul 1986. It was contributed by Joe Petolino of Chronon Computer Corp. in Mountain View, California.

The source identifies the dish as an Easter tradition in the contributor's family and traces this version to San Fele, east of Naples. It is a large, deep savory pie made with pizza dough and a dense filling of ricotta, mozzarella, Romano, parsley, spearmint, Italian sausage, salami, and prosciutto.

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Original Header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: petolino@chronon (Joe Petolino)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Pizza rustica
Message-ID: <4096@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 11 Jul 86 03:37:26 GMT
Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Chronon Computer Corp., Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 122
Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP


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