Easter Pie fresh out of the oven!
Easter is three weeks away so it is time to start planning to make our family Easter Pie. Anyone who knows me starts putting their requests in as soon as I start talking about it. “Freeze a piece for me!” is a sentence I hear for the next few weeks.
Pizzagain, or Easter Pie as we call it, is an Italian meat and cheese pie. I guess you can say it is a mix between a quiche and a calzone. Traditionally in my family this pie was only to be eaten after Easter because it had meat and it was not to be eaten during lent. There is also an ingredient in this pie, basket cheese, that at one time could only be found during the week leading up to Easter. Now the ingredients for this pie are easier to find year round and I make it at other times of the year.
I am going to share this recipe and break it down to make 4 pies at a time. I can remember as a young girl making this with my Grandmother and aunts where we made 16 pies at a time. We mixed all of the ingredients in a large pasta pot. I hear stories from family members that when my Grandmother was younger they made 32 pies at a time and mixed all the filling in a large pail and a wooden paddle. Yikes. I don’t have the muscles or the time for that. Feel free to cut the ingredients down to make 1 or 2 pies. I promise you though you will wish you made more and since most the cheeses come in larger containers it makes sense to make them this way.
I am happy to say that over the years the recipe has remained exactly the same and we have been able to preserve the recipe and duplicate the exact outcome year after year. I really don’t know how we did it considering my grandmother measured everything by containers she had in the house and not real measurements. For example, the dough calls for 1/2 cup of water but my grandmother would say 1/2 a glass. 1/2 a glass? A shot glass, a juice glass, an iced tea glass? In our case it was a juice glass. The same glass that was used to cut out the raviolis by the way. Over the years we tried to record the ingredients with true measurements but it is not an exact science. The ingredients for the filling can be altered slightly depending on your taste. This exact recipe is a tradition my sister, cousins and I plan on passing down to our children and grandchildren.
Many people add sausage, egg, ham and other salted meats. We only add pepperoni. I don’t know why my family started doing it this way but it’s the way we like it. I have not heard of anyone else only using only pepperoni so feel free to adjust the various meats.
A week in advance of making the pies, a batch of dough must be prepared to use in the filling. Think of breadcrumbs in meatballs. Dough must be boiled, dried, grated and dried again. This dried dough is a binder but also gives the filling an interesting texture.
DOUGH FOR FILLING:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of warm tap water (add a third at first and adjust as needed)
- 1/2 cup milk (again add a third and adjust as needed)
Mix ingredients and knead into a ball until smooth. Place ball of dough into a large pot of boiling water. Cook dough for about 20 minutes or until it is cooked through to center. Remove dough, cut into quarters and set out to dry. It should take about 24 hours to dry. The pieces now need to be grated into a fine dough. You can use a food processor but my family swears it must be grated by hand on the finest box grater possible. After all the dough is grated, it needs to be spread out on a clean cloth to dry out for another 24 hours. After it is collected it should be enough to fill a 1 pound deli container or about 2 cups.
Easter Pie filling should be mixed every time you fill a new pie.
FILLING:
- 4 large sticks of pepperoni (peeled and cut into small cubes)
- 1 small or 1/2 cheese in a basket
- 1 3 lb container of whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1 lb grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1 lb mozzarella (cut into small cubes)
- 21 hard boiled eggs (cut into small cubes)
- 21 raw eggs
- grated dough
Yes, that is a lot of eggs. Don’t forget when buying eggs that you need extra eggs for the dough and to brush on top of the pie’s before going in the oven.
Start by cracking all of the eggs into the bottom of your large pot or mixing bowl. Next add the grated dough. Now add the rest of the ingredients a little at a time while constantly turning the ingredients with large wooden spoon. You may even need to get in there with your hands.
You want to have all of your filling ingredients cut up and ready to mix before you start trying to assemble your pies.At this time pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Pie pans should be greased with shortening. I use square 9×9 pans.
DOUGH:
Same as the dough above except this time add 1 tbs of shortening to the batch. After kneading the dough, cut into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a thin crust and transfer to pan. Fill each pan with filling to the top, cut off excess dough and fold over edge of dough over filling.
Cut scraps of dough into strips and create a basket weave effect. Brush the top of the pie with an egg yolk wash.
Bake the pies (4 at a time) for 1 hour at 350 degrees rotating the pies from front to back half way through. You may need to cook them a bit longer depending on your oven. Test with toothpick to see if they have cooked through completely.
They can be served immediately hot, at room temperature or even cold. My favorite way is cold for breakfast with tea.
Yes this is a lot of work but it is worth it. If you live in Westchester, NY they make a killer version at A&S marketplace in Mount Kisco.
Fresh Food for My Family 