Before we discovered our intolerance to gluten, I used to make this Pizza Rustica, from Julia Child’s Baking with Julia, fairly regularly. Since the diagnosis, I basically shelved the baking books in favor of all of the GF books and only recently returned to it. Paging through it, I re-discovered this recipe and decided that the crust would easily adapt to being gluten free. You see, it has eggs in it, and eggs are a terrific binder. If you have a pie crust recipe that has eggs in it, you can substitute GF flours for the wheat flour almost straight across. I did add just a touch of xantham gum (probably about 1/2 tsp) just for kicks, but it probably wouldn’t need it.
They tell you that gluten free doughs don’t handle like wheat doughs and they are right – GF pie doughs can be much more cooperative when it comes to lining a pie plate! We try to treat it like a gluten free dough — rolling it out and then transferring it to a pie plate. But really, just throw a lump of your dough into the bottom of the pie plate and smoosh (that is the proper term, I believe), until it covers the pan. Easy.
Now mind you, this dish is not a healthfest. But it was Sunday night and I was hankering for something comforting, filling, and yes, just a bit decadent. The guts of this pizza are a pound of ricotta, quarter pound of mozzarella, 1/4 cup of pecorino romano, shredded prosciutto, eggs. After you get the bottom crust in, fill it with the cheese mixture. I topped it with some latticed pie crust for a nice finish, but you probably wouldn’t need to. To make a lattice crust, you do have to roll it out and slice it up. Just make sure you’ve got lots of flour underneath the dough and then gently lift the strip into place. Bake at 350 for about a half an hour or until the crust looks like you want to eat it.
It does need to set up for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven.
This is great for leftovers. I packed a piece for my daughter’s lunch the next day and she thought she was in heaven.
