Look at that crust! YUM! This week’s Baking with Julia Recipe was a serious hit in my house, which is kind of rare. My husband is sort of a picky eater but he’s his very own type of picky eater. He will actually eat anything, even if he doesn’t like it which I think is even worse than just downright refusing to eat something sometimes. I can tell when he doesn’t like it but is just shoveling it in to please me and it’s so depressing. In his family growing up, it didn’t matter if you didn’t like it you still had to have some, and that just wasn’t the case with me. So I really try to make things that he will actually like, but sometimes it’s so hard! For instance, he is not a big fan of soup so I rarely make it at home (sad day). Also, he doesn’t like long noodles but sometimes I just have to have me some good old fashioned spaghetti. Sorry, baby.
Casseroles are usually a big no-no as well because he doesn’t like everything mixed together, but then his favorite food is homemade chicken pot pie, which is totally a casserole in my eyes. Whatever, he’s a weirdo and I love him. So I thought maybe he would like this one because it’s kind of like a pot pie….sort of. I mean it’s way more like a pot pie or a quiche than a pizza, I think we can all agree, no?
Since I don’t have a large food processor, I mixed this dough up in my stand mixer and then just dumped it out on my pastry sheet to knead it. I was a little skeptical, because it looked like this:
I actually added a few tablespoons of water to make it come together and then it was pretty perfect! Because of the sugar it was much grainier than a normal pie/quiche dough, but it tasted very yummy!
Now, onto the filling! I made a few substitutions in the filling and I could say that it was because of my discerning taste or whatever but really I was being cheap. I used bacon instead of prosciutto because the prosciutto in the grocery store here is not really all that great and it costs over $8 for a quarter pound. But I had some really nice bacon from our meat market that only costs like $4.75 a pound so I just cut some of that up and used it instead. I also elected to use little mozzarella balls instead of shredded mozzarella not out of cheapiness but just because I think they’re cute. So surprise, surprise I added more cheese since I just used the whole package of those instead of saving a few measly balls (haha) for something else. Oh and I cut up some scallions and threw them in just for kicks because I love them and add them to everything. So here’s the filling all mixed up
Some people might think this looks like throw up, but like the mother of a strange looking child, I only see the positives. Those little mozzarella balls are calling my name!
Here is my little beauty before baking. Note the color of the lattice top because after the baking, it didn’t really change much. Did anyone else have this issue? The crust around the sides got a beautiful golden color, but my lattices stayed whiter than my legs in March.
I was naughty, naughty and only let this baby cool for about 15 minutes before we cut it but I don’t regret it at all because it was really yummy! The cheese was all melty goodness and after he finished his first helping Tristan actually said, “Can I please have more of this delicious meal?” My heart was a’singin’! When I asked him for a rating on a scale of 1-10 he gave it a 7.5 which is pretty high marks for him. I would definitely make this again and I think it’s a recipe that lends itself to adaption. I think it would be really good with some sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. Hope everyone else liked it as much as we did! I brought it for lunch the next day and got a somewhat decent slice shot.
Catch all you Doristas in a couple of weeks for Lemon Loaf Cake! The hosts for Pizza Rustica are Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. Check out their sites to get the recipe and make a delicious Pizza Rustica of your very own!
