pizza rustica (caution: this ain't pizza)
For as long as I can remember, my family has had big Sunday dinners. Singing, dancing, and plenty of eating are a common theme. Lots of antipasti are served, including this ricotta cheese pie (known as pizza rustica in Italy). The fillings are interchangeable and you can leave some of the meats out if you don't have access to them all. The dough is a little bit sweet, which makes for a great foil to the intensely salty meats and cheeses in the filling.
This pie is very traditional for the two days buttressing lent -- "Carnevale" (the day before Ash Wednesday) and Easter Sunday. I imagine that good Catholic Italians stay away from it during lent because it doesn't exactly speak to "sacrifice." We enjoy it year-round. C'est la vie. It's wonderful warm, room temperature, or even chilled.
A trick for those who are pie-averse because of the dough: just buy 9-inch deep dish pre-made pie shells. My supermarket even sells them in a sweet variety, which mimics the sweetness of this dough. However, I encourage you to try the homemade version here -- you don't have to roll it out, you just press it into a greased cake pan. What (other than the pre-made shells) could be easier?
