easter pie OR pizza rustica OR calzone

we call this dish calzone-- but we say ghav-uh-zoon-- and we pretty much live for easter so we can have it. we love it so much we'd make is other times of year, but you can only get basket cheese at easter, so we can't. because of the magnitude of this project, we have to do it at my mother's house where there are three ovens, and the occasional excitable teenaged brother willing to forgo book learnin' to get elbow deep in family tradition for an afternoon.

dough ingredients:

• 20 cups of flour (plus more for dusting)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• 2 tbs salt
• 6 cups vegetable shortening ("crisco: it's digestible!")
• 19 eggs
• 3/4 cup ice water
• egg wash (milk & 2 beaten eggs)

filling ingredients:

• 3 pounds sweet italian sausage, out of the case, browned
• 3 pounds ham, diced
• 1 pounds soprasotta, thick-sliced, diced
• 1 pound proscuitto, thick-sliced, diced
• 1 pound ricotta cheese
• 1 basket cheese, diced
• 20 hard boiled eggs, diced
• chopped fresh parsley
• 6 eggs

prep:

• hard boil 24 eggs, chop 20 of them and set aside
• brown sausage
• dice meats & basket cheese
• combine meats
  

• combine dry ingredients for dough

• blend in shortening
  

• add eggs & water
• blend thoroughly
• turn out and knead (or massagia)
  
  
  
• add basket cheese & parsley to meat
  
  
  
• preheat oven(s) to 375*
• break for a lovely lunch of egg salad sandwiches (those last 4 eggs!), carrots and limeade. it's traditional.
  

• add hard boiled eggs to meat
  

• add raw eggs & ricotta to meat
  

actual cooking:

• roll out dough into large circles

• paint egg wash around edges
• pile half with filling
• fold other half over
• crimp edges
• move to a greased baking sheet
• brush with egg wash
• vent

• bake at 375* until browned and bubbling
• cool for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size) on the sheet
• move to a rack to cool completely
• serve lukewarm or cold
  

this recipe made 2 extra larges (about 16"x8"), 7 larges (about 10"x5") and 6 smalls (about 8"x4"). that's a lot. but somehow, we always need as many as we make. they freeze so well that we usually have one in january to hold us over.

bill's awesome procuitto & asparagus pizza

i'm not going to lie, my husband is a pizza-and-beer guy. just, you know, a GOURMET pizza and beer guy. on a recent trip to visit family, he invented this insanely easy pizza. i wanted him to guest blog, but, alas, he thinks you'll miss my dumb jokes. or something.

ingredients:

• pizza shell (pre-made crust)
• tomato sauce
• one of those mozzarella/prosciutto/basil roll-ups
• about a half-pound of asparagus

optional ingredients:

• scratch cheese (which, btw, means your choice of those grated aged cheese combinations, like peccorino-romano and shit)
• crushed garlic/garlic powder
• olive oil spray
• oregano (et cetera)

prep:

• chop asparagus into about one inch chunks, steam or blanch
• slice cheese roll thinly

actual cooking:

• (spray crust with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs, spices and scratch cheese)
• spread tomato sauce VERY THINLY over the shell, almost to the edge
• spread out your sliced cheese roll to cover sauce (a little space between is fine, it will melt)
• add asparagus on top
• bake (about 350?) until ooey-gooey and delicious-looking

ohmygod, so good. i'm starting to think i should make him cook more often.