Pizza Rustica

 

This recipe comes to me from a reader who must have seen my Uncle Walt's recipe for Individual Pizza. Here is what he emailed me with the recipe.

"Hi, this is a Pizza Rustica a recipe that I started using a few years ago. I am not sure of it's origin. This makes a great romantic, candle lit dinner served with my favorite Spanish wine Marques de Caceres..." D.L.

Pizza Rustica

Ingredients:

1 loaf of frozen or fresh bread dough
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbs. olive oil
1 9oz package of chopped spinach-well drained
2 medium tomatoes; peeled, seeded, & chopped
1 tbs. basil
1/8 tsp. sage
4 oz. shredded provolone
4 oz thinly sliced Proscuitto
1 cup shredded mozzarella
9 or 10 inch pie pan
1 egg white and 1 tbs. of water

Procedure

Let dough rise, when done, work parmesan into the dough. In a medium skillet sauté garlic in olive oil for 30 seconds. Add spinach stir one minute, sauté only until spinach wilts, add sage, set aside. Stir together tomato, and basil, set aside. Pat 1/2 the dough into a pie pan and layer (in this order) the following ingredients, leaving a 1 inch border: 1 cup of the mozzarella, sautéed spinach, all the provolone, tomato and basil mixture, the meat, and the remaining mozzarella. Roll out remaining dough and place it on top of the pie and seal edges together. Set aside and let rise for 1 hour. Preheat oven at 375°. Brush egg and water mixture on top. Bake for 40 minutes or until pie turns slightly brown*.
Makes 6-8 servings. Realistically, 4-5 servings In American servings.

*may want to place aluminum foil over the pie for the last 10 minutes to prevent over browning.

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