Text 4379, 112 rader
Skriven 2008-03-26 11:15:32 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Easter Pizza
====================
A little too late for Easter this year, but this is delicious any
time of year.

http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/2008/03/easter-pizza.html

Every Easter when I was a kid, my Italian grandmother would make 
what the family called "Easter Pizza." She would stuff bread 
dough with layers of hard-boiled eggs, meats, and cheeses, and 
bake it in the oven until the bread was done. It was our favorite 
Easter treat.

What we always called "Easter Pizza" is known by many names and 
there are many different ways to make it. In Naples and Campania, 
Easter Pie is made with ricotta cheese, eggs, and whole grains of 
wheat. It's called pastiera, and the custard-like filling is often 
flavored with orange-blossom water. Sicilians make a different 
variety altogether: theirs has pasta, pork, cheese, and eggs. 
And in Calabria. pizza rustica is often made with ham, sausage, 
hard-boiled eggs, mozzarella, and ricotta.

Doing a quick Google search will show you that there are dozens 
of recipes for this traditional Easter favorite out there, and 
just about every one of them is different - after all, the 
ingredients not only vary from region to region within Italy, 
but even from family to family. My own recipe is as close to my
grandmother's as I can recall, but she never wrote it down. 
Because she passed away so many years ago, when I started making 
it for my own family I had to reconstruct the recipe from memories 
of what it tasted like.

Easter Pizza

1 recipe bread dough - use your favorite recipe for medium-soft 
white bread, or you can buy a bag of "pizza dough" from your 
local supermarket.
1/2 pound sliced sharp Provolone cheese
1/2 pound thinly-sliced sopressata
1/2 pound thinly-sliced Genoa salami
1 pound Italian fennel sausage, cooked and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 pound basket cheese (or fresh mozzarella)
5 hard-boiled eggs, halved

Punch down the dough after the first rising and divide in half. 
Line a baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with cornmeal. 
Roll the first half of the dough out large enough to cover the 
baking sheet - the dough should be about a quarter of an inch 
thick.

Cover the dough with a layer of sliced Provolone cheese, going 
to within a quarter-inch of the edges. Next, lay down a layer 
of the fennel sausage. Crumble the basket cheese and sprinkle 
a little more than half of it on the sausage. Next, add the 
hard-boiled eggs. Cover this with slices of sopressata and 
finally with a generous layer of Genoa salami. Sprinkle this 
with the remaining basket cheese. If there is any Provolone 
cheese or salami left over, add them on top of all of this.

Roll out the second half of the dough large enough to cover 
the pizza and place it over the layers of filling; go around 
the edges of the pizza and seal it by turning the edges under 
and pressing with your fingers or a fork. Cut a few slashes 
in the top and allow the bread to rise for about 20 minutes.

Bake in a 350 F oven for about an hour, or until the crust is 
golden brown. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for 
the pizza to cool slightly before cutting into it.

Notes:


Basket cheese is a soft, fresh cheese that is formed by pressing 
curds gently in a basket. If you don't have an ethnic Italian 
population nearby, it can be hard to find. You can substitute 
soft, fresh mozzarella instead.

Feel free to add slices of prosciutto, capicola, or other Italian 
hams or sausages to your Easter Pizza. The recipe adapts well to
modification.


Need a good, medium-soft white bread recipe to make your Easter 
Pizza? You can try the one I use:

3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
2 1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp shortening
6 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in warm water and set aside to 
work and get foamy. Combine salt with 2 cups of the flour and 
cut in the shortening until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. 
Pour in the proofed yeast mixture and add another two cups of 
flour, mixing until you get a smooth and very sticky dough. 
Add another two cups of flour and knead well for 10 to 15 
minutes, working in the remaining half cup of flour, until 
the dough is silky-smooth and elastic. Turn into an oiled bowl, 
cover with a damp cloth, and allow to rise for about an hour 
until doubled in bulk. Punch the dough down and divide in two; 
continue with the Easter Pizza recipe.



---
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