Cold Cut Pie

Apparently at Easter American Italian families make. Cold Cut Pie.
I was watching Cake Boss on Food TV. Buddy the star of the show and the owner of Carlos Bakery, is a loud Hobroken, American Italian. The cakes that come out of that shop are amazing.
It’s a great show. Actually this is the only savoury dish that they make there.

Courtesy of a Blog called Deedee Delights, I got this information about this dish… it seems that during Lent & the 40 days of fasting, this cold cut pie was made by the Italian women on Good Friday, as an abundance of meat & richness that was abstained during Lent. It was prepared, cooked, and chilled on Good Friday, but could not be cut & eaten before noon on Easter Saturday. Although some people serve it on Easter Sunday. Many Easter dishes were made in advance so the local Priest could come and Bless the prepared foods for the Feast of Easter.
If you go to deedee’s blog click here you will see the real recipe

At first I thought it looked reminiscent of New Zealand’s Bacon and Egg pie. On second glance after Googling it, I found it has far more complex ingredients than the humble but delicious Bacon and Egg Pie. Also its more like a quiche.

And it is not pastry but dough.
This is my version, my Husband is not keen on Deli meats, so I bought Sopresso which, with it’s chili content, was a compromise and worked well, just enough flavour

So I had some ricotta and spinach mixture in the fridge, I bought some Italian Sopresso, Mozzarella and Parmesan, you could add any other appropriate cold cuts.
This was a great success

It is best eaten at room temperature
Don't cut until it cools.
The custard needs to set.
Its hard to give quantities, seriously you can add whatever

For a 23 cm pie
I used a packet of Sopresso chopped
1/2 cup ricotta, mixed with spinach, lemon zest, garlic
Cubes of mozzarella
Grated Parmesan
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Go easy on the salt as most of the ingredients are salty.

I used my Basic White Bread Dough
2 cups white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 packet yeast (8gms)
230 mls hand hot water

Put yeast and sugar in 200 mls of hand hot water
Stir
Leave about 5 minutes to activate the yeast
put the other ingredients into the food processor
Whiz for a second or two
Add yeast mix
Let it whiz, not too fast..
If it is not forming into a ball slowly add a little more water, until it does
the dough should have left the sides of the processor
Knead about 2-3 minutes on the bench

Form a nice smooth ball 
Turn the ball over so it has a nice smooth skin
and place into a greased bowl
Toss it around to make sure it is oiled
Leave to rise about 1 hour

Punch down and do the same knead again

Proportion the bread into 2/3 for the base and 1/3 for the lid
and leave for a second rise
Around 30-40 minutes

On a floured bench roll out the larger piece and line
a baking tin.
I used a quiche tin with a removable base
Fill with your wet mixture

Roll out the lid and cover mixture
Crimp edges together
And bake at 190C
Turn it around after 20 minutes
Bake for another 15 minutes
Carefully take it out of the tin and put on a cooling rack
If the bottom is looking a little white and soft
Pop it back in the oven for another 5 or so minutes

Cool on a rack,
Cut a big fat slice and Enjoy

There was leftovers
Lunch today. Yes