I realised lately that amongst my friends my cooking (especially my baking) has become known mostly for sweet things. I find this somewhat amusing as personally I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, I prefer the savoury side of life (cheeses, deli meats, cute little finger foods etc). I think the culprit is my recent (ok going on more than 2 years now) obsession with cupcakes. Yep cupcakes, I am a pawn to their cuteness and endless potential for flavour combinations. Add to that the wonderful nostalgia thing and feeling like a kid with the best treat ever whenever you eat one and really, how can anyone resist? I do cook other things though, so this time (even though I did make cupcakes the same day … orange, cardamom and chocolate even.. recipe in another post to come) I am sharing something with no sugar in sight but still I don’t suggest eating this if you are on a “diet”.

Looking for something to serve for brunch / lunch / all day eating fest that should provide something more substantial than cupcakes, chocolate and chips and dip I rummaged through my cookbooks. Again this recipe comes from Nigella’s how to be a domestic goddess, which I really recommend people pick up and read at some point. It has some fantastic recipes but also her writing style is evocative and engaging.
I chose to make pie… Pizza Rustica to be precise, though with a few alterations either from not being able to find specific ingredients or sheer laziness (I decided to sleep in for an extra hour instead of making the pastry).

The pie was full of flavour and was even better over the next couple of days providing quick and easy lunches from the leftovers. It does take a while to cook but the prep is simple and quick so once it is in the oven there really isn’t anything to worry about

I served this with purple potato salad (though with the purple seeping into the mayonnaise it looked more lavender than purple) We have been buying purple congo potatoes at the Victoria markets and have been joyfully seeing what we can throw them in. So far there has been the salad, pies and mash (very strange mounds of lavender coloured mash were a weird site net to steak but in a good way).

On to the recipe… (minus the pastry which was a simple shortcrust-like creation)

Ingrediets (filling)

50g luganega (or mild pork sausage skinned)   – Not being able to find thins at the last minute, I substituted chorizo.. ok not mild but really really good
250g Ricotta
50g smoked provolone – again I couldn’t source this at the local deli (not even at Moonee Ponds o_O ) so I used unsmoked provolone (piquant)
125g Italian Mozzarella
50g Grated Parmesan
1/2 clove of garlic
2 tablespoons flat leafed parsley
2 pinches chilli powder – I left this out because I used the chorizo and didn’t want it to be too spicy
100g prosciutto
100g Mortadella
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 heaped tablespoon dried breadcrumbs – I substituted sage and onion stuffing mix which I generally always do when something calls for breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Fry the sausage for ~5mins breaking it up into small pieces, before setting it aside to cool, once cooled add all the other ingredients except the bread crumbs and mix until combined.
Line a 22cm spring-form tin with your pastry (I used store bought puff pastry as it is what I had on hand), sprinkle the base with an even coating of the breadcrumbs and then add the filling. Cover with you pastry lid and fold the edges up to seal. Glaze with egg wash and poke steam holes into the top.

Bake for 10 minutes at 220 then turn the oven down to 180 and bake for a further 45mins. Leave the pie to cool slightly (about 10-25mins) before serving. It is also really tasty at room temperature and would work well taken on a picnic.