Tuesday, April 3, 2012

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.

18 comments:

  1. I liked the dough as well. It was sweet, but fit well to my taste!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your substitutions, great idea to give it more like a fresh flavour!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great photo gallery! Love it

    Ulrike @Küchenlatein

    ReplyDelete
  4. My dough had the same issues as yours - I chilled it overnight, but the heat in my kitchen as I was rolling it out was too much for it. It was touch and go, but it came together (whew!). I love those peppers - what a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks lovely - especially with all those colors shining through.

    My dough sat a day + in the fridge & handled pretty well. I guess it needed a nap :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your photos, especially the slice of pie on the plate. I too liked the sweet crust, just as it is.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very nice photos! And a simply beautiful pizza rustica! I really enjoyed this one, so glad you did, too!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yours looks great! Good choice leaving out the prosciutto!

    ReplyDelete
  9. looks delicious! next time i'm definitely adding more veggies to mine!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was surprised by how "light" this seemed, too. Thanks for the spinach and cherry peppers idea, it sounds like a great combination. Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your pie is beautiful and I love your pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I thought the crust was just fine as well. I also left out the prosciutto and instead used roasted red peppers and Kalamata olives. The olives added the needed salt. Your pie is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I really like the variation that you made....I would definitely have a slice of yours! :-P

    ReplyDelete
  14. your plate is fab, the fillings sound great and we liked ours HOT out of the oven than room temp or cold... :)

    Alice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. It looks delicious, and I love your changes!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beautiful -- love the changes you made to the filling.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Woah! I bet those peppers added some really good flavors! It definitely added nice color to the pie!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! Would love to hear from you - feel free to comment.