I missed the last recipe with being sick and St. Patrick's Day and all, so I was very excited to get back into it with this week's recipe--Pizza Rustica. Check out this week's hosts for the recipe:
Capital Region Dining and
The Place They Call Home.
Having no idea of what this "pizza" would be like, I checked out the P&Q thread on TWD blog and saw that many people thought the crust was too sweet and many people used different filling ingredients. We eat mostly vegetarian so I planned on using spinach and mushrooms in my filling, but changed my mind when I found a locally-made pepperoni at the farmers' market.
The pepperoni was unsliced and the recipe called for thinly sliced shredded prosciutto, so I just had my husband cut the pepperoni into thin slices and then cut into strips. I used ricotta from Trader Joe's, the remainder of a block of grocery store mozzarella, and parmigiano reggiano instead of romano.
Even though I was concerned about the crust being too sweet, I made it as the recipe called for. I was surprised at how easy the crust was because I'm normally paranoid about my pie crusts. The whole pie came together pretty quickly.
My husband and I were planning to eat this for dinner and I hadn't noticed that this was supposed to cool completely before served. I took it out of the oven, put it in the fridge for a few minutes, and when we couldn't wait anymore, we ate it. Yes, it was still hot, but delicious anyway. The pepperoni had a nice spice to it and both of us really enjoyed the sweet crust. Honestly I thought the bites at the edge of the pie with the most sweet crust were the best. My husband thought this was a keeper! We had it the next day for lunch cold and it was good that way too.
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Slice of pizza rustica, ready to eat! Local eggs with super yellow yolks contributed to the pretty yellow color. |
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Check out the yummy local pepperoni in the filling. |