Tuesday, April 03, 2012

TWD—Baking With Julia—Pizza Rustica

TWD Pizza Rustica

Pizza Rustica—sounds like pizza, but is more like a quiche or savory pie.  We made that this go-round for Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia.  It is fun to be making these recipes in Baking With Julia now.  I like that we go from simple Irish soda bread to something more involved like Rugelach or this Pizza Rustica.

I like the pie.  Even though I used a low fat ricotta, I know that this “pizza” is not really low fat, so I’ve tried not to eat too much of it.  My only problem with it was the crust.  It was quite a wet dough, did not specify any chilling time and I could not get it to roll out without sticking like crazy to my well-floured surface.  I persevered and ended up pressing the bottom crust in to the pie plate.  Since the top crust wasn’t going to cooperate with being rolling out and cut into lattice strips, I cut it into fun circles and placed them over the top of the pie.  The little circles were much easier to work with getting off the counter. 

I was happy that I even decided while buying ricotta to get some prosciutto instead of just using ham or bacon like I was going to and it was really good.  The only change I made to the whole recipe was that I used low fat ricotta instead of whole milk.

Pizza Rustica

I think this would be good with a different crust, like just a regular pie crust.  Not sure what my problem was with this one, but I followed the recipe exactly.  Maybe the original recipe came from someone who measures flour with a heavy hand.  I weighed mine.  Either way, this is a great pizza pie for a brunch or even breakfast or lunch, whatever, you could have it for dinner, too.

If you want the recipe, Emily from Capital Region Dining or Raelyn from  The Place They Call Home are the hosts this time and they’ll have the recipe posted for you.  Lots of Pizza Rustica viewing for your hungry eyes over at TWD Headquarters.

14 comments:

Jenn said...

My crust was sticky too. I just added more flour. Some still stuck on my table after rolling, but it worked out. It was very sweet even with the extra flour I added, but I enjoyed it sweet =)

Jessica of My Baking Heart said...

Ah! I LOVE the circle crust, Katrina... adorable! :)

Erin said...

The circles were a good solution, my dough was sticky too!

Flourchild said...

It looks good even if you had issues with the crust...love the crust circles!

wendy (pinkstripes) said...

I think your circle top looks groovy!

spike said...

Love the circles! Low fat ricotta is a great sub too

Lisa said...

I like your circle idea even better. So fun!

Megan's Cookin' said...

The circles remind me of pepperoni and olives. As soon as I saw it, I thought, "that clever Katrina"! LOL

Sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more said...

I love how you topped it with the circles, they are so cute!

Anonymous said...

Your dots instead of a lattice are a great change :) your pie crust might have been due to the amount of humidity in the air, and it looks really wet actually - might have needed a bit more flour. even if you weigh your flour, your eggs might not have been quite as heavy as they should be - large eggs when baking are the best but they are even only on average 2 oz. also switching from full fat dairy products to low fat introduces more liquid to a recipe than will work for it. hope that helps! :) your pizza does look great and I wish I had used bacon and ham instead of prosciutto. :(

Alice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com

Jill said...

That's way cute with the circles of dough on top! I made my dough the day before and it was really easy to work with after chilling. Now I'm glad I did that!

Cher Rockwell said...

The circles are such a fun look - too cute.

Strychnine said...

Hee! Totally love the crust :D Wish I'd thought of that instead of struggling with that infernal lattice top!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Great idea for a top crust...it would be wonderful on a fruit pie, too! Beautiful!