TWD: Pizza Rustica

Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Nick Malgieri


 
                                                     Pizza Rustica                                             


Pizza as we know it, it is not!

I hemmed and hawed on making this when I saw that it was not your average pizza; dough twirled in the air into a thin disc, sauce swirled over the dough, toppings such as basil, tomato, cheese or whatever your liking scattered across the top. No not your average pizza at all.

Think quiche - that best describes it.

The recipe as written sounded rather bland to me and I was not feeling the flavor of prosciutto at the time so I changed the recipe up a bit. I omitted the prosciutto and added sweet cherry peppers, roasted bell pepper and spinach. The one mistake I made was not adding salt which the prosciutto would have lent to the dish.

For the bakers that made this before me and posted their thoughts, they recommended using less sugar in the dough for it came across as too sweet. I used the full amount and did not find it too sweet at all. Sometimes I do wonder if my taste buds are waning though. This came out pleasantly lighter than I had anticipated; that being the other reason I hesitated on making this for I was not in the mood for something heavy.

Cutting into the "pizza" the aroma of the sweet cherry peppers wafted through the kitchen and I thought this is going to be good. If I make this again I'll go with just the cherry peppers and spinach. They are that good.

I had this three ways; room temperature, cold and warm. I preferred it warm. This was still very good the next day, maybe even better and the crust remained flaky not soggy as I had expected. The lattice was softer, but not sodden.

I must say this turned out beautiful!

Success meter (1-3): 3





Draining the ricotta.



Pressing the moisture out of the peppers and spinach.





The dough gave me problems. I'm thinking it should have been

chilled or kneaded longer. Came out quite greasy and looked

like it wanted to separate.



Ready for the oven.





For the recipe go to this month's hosts' sites, Emily of Capital Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. Make sure to check out the other bakers from the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group to see their versions of this "pizza". It's interesting to see the adaptions others make due to their likes, dis-likes or availability of ingredients. We have bakers from not just the states, but other countries as well like Spain, India, and Argentina to name a few. If you are feeling inspired after viewing you can purchase Baking with Julia at your local bookstore or on-line.