Tuesdays With Dorie: Pizza Rustica

This is not a traditional pizza, as in a crust with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  This is a pizza pie with two crusts and a ricotta and prosciutto filling.  Yum!

I was surprised by the sweet dough, which has 1/3 cup of sugar in it.    I ran out of AP flour and substituted the last 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour.  We love the nuttiness and chewy texture from whole wheat flour, so if anything, the addition of it just added to the yumminess of the dough.  I was supposed to use a food processor to pull the dough together, but I do not have one large enough for a large dough, so I assembled the dough by hand, using a pastry cutter to cut in the butter.  It came together just fine.  It rolled out easily, and was nice and crispy on top and bottom, holding the heavy ricotta filling just fine!  


Before baking:

The filling is ricotta cheese, mozzarella, Romano, eggs, prosciutto, fresh parsley, and black pepper.  Simple!    The recipe called for whole milk ricotta, which I used for the sake of following the recipe, but next time I'll substitute skim, and I'll also add a bunch of vegetables and garlic to jazz it up.  This was tasty, but I missed some spiciness somewhere.

Today's hosts on Tuesdays With Dorie are Emily of Capital Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home.  Go check out their blogs for the complete Pizza Rustica recipe!  Or, if you've been inspired by my Tuesdays With Dorie posts, you could get your own copy of Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan and try your hand at baking some of these delicious recipes!

I served the Pizza Rustica with a delicious Strawberry Spinach Salad, one of our favorites this time of year.   Here's the recipe for the salad, if you'd like!  It's so refreshing.

1 bag baby spinach or spinach/lettuce mix

1 pint strawberries, sliced or halved

1/2 cup pecan pieces or pecan halves

1/3 cup canola oil

3 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp. dry mustard powder

dash of salt

1 Tbsp. poppy seed

In a large serving bowl, place spinach leaves, and top with strawberries and pecans.  Whisk together canola oil, sugar, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt, and poppy seed.   Pour over salad, toss gently, and serve immediately.

*I typically serve the dressing on the side and just refrigerate leftovers.