This Sunday, I had a busy day at home. Because my parents are coming to visit us in a couple weeks, I am very excited and have a long list of things to do. You know, mostly small things revolving around tidying the mess we have been living in for quite some time now due to work and leisure trips we took and innate inclination of ours to put off housework in general (except for cooking, and growing stuff in the garden in the summer). This past weekend was the first weekend in some time that we got to spend at home. I enjoyed being home and got quite a bit done at the home front. Things accomplished were: fixing up the guest bedroom, sorting and organizing our books, mowing the lawn (David), fixing a broken kitchen faucet (David), salvaging a half-dead bush (David&me), finishing a conference paper (David), going out with friends, and finally baking the recipe for TWD which was due on, I can’t remember when. Yes, I am late again.
The recipe is called “Pizza Rustica”, but the final product is neither pizza nor quite rustic. It is more like a quiche, or a savory pie. So, I am not sure where the name comes from. Anyway, making the crust for this recipe was very easy. I mixed all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and sugar) in the food processor, added the butter and mixed some more. Then, I had to hold the kitchen faucet in its place as David, under the sink, tried to tighten it from below. After this bit of manual labor, I knead the dough a couple of minutes. Once the dough came together, I chilled it in the fridge as I prepped the filling.
The filling for the recipe mostly consists of ricotta cheese. It also has some pecorino romano, mozzarella, parsley, eggs and black pepper. I replaced prosciutto in the recipe with green olives, and also added scallions and some of my mom’s homemade hot red pepper flakes to the filling. All I did to prep the filling was to mix the cheese, herbs, spices and eggs to make a thick liquid. Meanwhile, I also had to pass a couple screwdrivers to David, who still was under the sink.
Finally, I rolled more than half of the dough to fit to a 9 inch pie plate. I really enjoy playing with dough, thus this step was fun for me. I also learned how to make a lattice pie top for this recipe. I loved the way the pie looked before it went into the oven. Mighty purty, isn’t it?
Before
Here is how the pie looked once it came out of the oven.
After
I served the pie with some simple steamed vegetables and chilled white wine, as you can see from the picture with a weird angle below. We enjoyed the sunny weather having our lunch in our backyard for the very first time this spring. Did I mention that at this point we also had a working faucet? :)
Lunch is served
By the time my baking was done, we were on the verge of starvation and could not wait anymore and I cut the pie when it was kind of warm. So, the crust looks a bit dense in the picture above. However, it actually had a nice fluffy texture and a sweet flavor. The filling was very moist and tasted very milky because of the ricotta.
In the end, I am glad that I tried this recipe. Overall, David loved it more than I did. I was not so fond of the sweet crust. We both thought that the filling could be improved. David’s suggestion was to put feta cheese in the filling. I like the idea. If you are interested, the recipe is available here and here.
Coincidentally, the day I baked this recipe was Easter Sunday and I could not help but think of this little skit as I was baking.
David and I kept asking each other “How about eggs?” No one knew the answer.
My little yellow cookbook 
Canım ya ne kadar güzel bir şey olmuş bu böyle…Ustunu cok guzel ormussun…Hele son fotograftaki keyif harika olmus:))
İkiniz de epey calısmıssınız bakıyorum:)) Toparlanmak icin birinin geliyor olması iyi bir bahane oluyor.:)
:) Goruntusu hos olmus di mi? uzerindeki orguden oyle oldu. Haklisin evi duzene koymam icin misafir gelmesi gerekiyo, yoksa salliyorum. zaman harcayacak baska seyler -daha keyifli seyler- oluyo hep.
Eline saglik Denizcim, cok guzel olmus.. Senin filling benimkinden biraz daha sivi oldu herhalde, durusu farkli :)
Youtube’dan post ettigin saka super, cok guldum :)) “How about eggs?” :)
Ferdos, ben ricotta’yi suzmedim. Herseyi karistirdiktan sonra aklima geldi senin soylediklerin :) Gobekli oldu benimki, ama ici cok akiskan degildi.
Bu adamin beyond pale diye bi stand-up gosterisi var. Bi ara izleyin bence, cok komik. Yemek duskunu adam, cok yemekle alakali esprileri var.
How about eggs? I can just hear you and David enjoying this joke! I find it interesting that this is a savory recipe but with a sweet crust. Would it be just as tasty with a regular crust? As always, I enjoyed reading your post and envisioning you baking and being plumber’s assistant at the same time. Hope David’s language doesn’t go downhill like his dad’s does in similar situations!
Marcia, I think I would have liked it better with a regular crust. I actually liked the sweet crust but not the combination of it with the filling. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the post. David’s language can sometimes go downhill depending on the complexity of the task at hand. He did very well this time :)
Would you ever try doing half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose (or whatever was called for)? Although sweetness is not affected, substituting some whole wheat flour, in my experience, changes the overly sweet taste bud experience because of the qualities the whole wheat flour adds. I even like to do this in my sweet fruit pies.
I might try this next time I bake a pie. I always use white flour for pie crusts.