ITALIAN EASTER SPECIALS

[yak67]

Now that is a new one one me. No, I never have, nor did my Mom. Do you use a thin crust, or do you use a bread crust ?

[Dee514]

CHRISSYG wrote:
we just used to call that "ham pie" because the kids couldn't pronounce it the way my grandparents did in Italian, so they'd improvise in English... I've taken over the Ham Pie and Rice pie duties for my family since the passing of my Grandmother several years ago.

Does anyone else out there make the sweet rice pie, with orange zest and juice, lemon zest and juice, ricotta, and sugar? (somtimes topped with cinnamon)

I used to make all three (the ham, the rice and the wheat) pies for Easter, now I only make the wheat pies and the ham pies. If I recall, Nana used the same "recipe" for the rice pies as she did for the wheat. Of course the arborio rice does not need to be soaked like the grano.

I'll look for Nana's notes for the rice pies.

Maria's Easter (Wheat) Pie/"Pastiera di Grano"

Italian Easter Pie /Pizza Rustica (aka "Ham Pie")

[CHRISSYG]

Dee,

Well, your pizza rustica recipe looks exactly like how we make it (of course, I have no recipe... I learned from watching grandmom)

Instead of Mozzarella however we used 'basket cheese' or farmers cheese.

**********************************************

I liked the remark of the "welcome to the Southern Italian Forum" ..... family is from a VERY small town near Benevento... (it's actually not on any maps I've ever googled) it's called Castal Dune... which is considered the Campania region.

That could be a whole other set of posts... so where's your FAMILY from??

[Queenkungfu]

for our easter pizza my grandmother always made her own dough. it's pizza dough. i hate to admit it but i just go to the supermarket and buy the frozen pizza dough or sometimes they sell it just cold but not frozen. it depends on the store i have to use! thanks for the welcome! i have been unable to get to my computer. i am suprised my family didn't have to surgically remove me from my new laptop!

[Dee514]

CHRISSYG wrote:
Dee,


Well, your pizza rustica recipe looks exactly like how we make it (of course, I have no recipe... I learned from watching grandmom)

Instead of Mozzarella however we used 'basket cheese' or farmers cheese.

**********************************************

I liked the remark of the "welcome to the Southern Italian Forum" ..... family is from a VERY small town near Benevento... (it's actually not on any maps I've ever googled) it's called Castal Dune... which is considered the Campania region.

That could be a whole other set of posts... so where's your FAMILY from??

Hi Chrissy,
My Mom's side of the family was from Campo Basso/Casserta....Nana (most of my recipes) was from Muro Lucano...Dad's side of the family may have been from Sicily, but I'm not sure.

Chrissy.....try this spelling Casalduni

Thought you might find this interesting Casalduni ~ Ellis Island

[CHRISSYG]

Dee THANK YOU!

Wow, that's the place (funny, I've been spelling it wrong for how long now?) When I was in Italy, we drove up from Sicily, we took the ferry over from just below Messina to Reggio di Calabria... we were intent on getting to Casalduni, (thank you for the correct spelling) and had mapped out to Benevento... unfortunately I had only driven a stick shift once or twice before and I dropped the transmission going up a long hill on the highway somewhere above Cosenza (I was losing power so I downshifted only I went from 4th to 1st thinking I was going from 4th to 3rd)
So, we were side tracked and I never got to see the town that my Dad's parent's came from... (we were in Siracusa where Mom's family is from for five days, it was beautiful)

Dee you and I sound almost like we could be related!!