Italian tradition celebrates Easter with sweet and savory pies

The thing about Easter pies is that you can’t really make just one. They are meant to feed a village. And not always peacefully.

Elmwood Park’s Alicia Quartucci recalls that many a recipient of her annual pizza gaina has told other family members that Quartucci didn’t deliver a pie — so it wouldn’t have to be shared. “Sometimes excuses are made, like ‘I saved your health, because your cholesterol is too high,’ or ‘I thought you were out of town.’ “

And then there’s the fact that these pies have their roots in old family recipes scaled for a crowd, requiring a multi-generational assembly line of chopping, mixing and rolling (and sometimes friendly bickering).

Call it pizza rustica, pizza gaina, pizza piena or any number of names – Italians have long marked Easter with some version of a towering Easter pies filled with meats and eggs and cheese. The thick slabs of pie are often served to break the Good Friday meat blackout – one of Quartucci’s friends eats hers right at 12:01 a.m. Saturday – or at dinner on Easter Sunday.

And for dessert, there might be more hearty, heavy pies, this time filled with ricotta and wheat or rice.

It’s not hard to find these items behind an Italian deli counter around this time of year. But for many families, the process of making their own is just as important as eating it.

The late Katy Contessa learned her family’s version of pizza gaina from her own Sicilian mother. But when it came to passing it on down, Contessa “was secretive,” says daughter Elaine Contessa Haroldson of Paramus. “She wouldn’t give anything away. You were able to pour the eggs in and that was it.”

The one person Contessa would allow in her kitchen was her granddaughter, Donna Spoto. But even she wasn’t spared Grandma Katy’s exacting standards: “This was very serious business,” Spoto recalls. “[Any mistake] meant our day was a failure, no matter how delicious the pie tasted.”

But when Spoto was about to turn 18, her grandmother became terminally ill and began giving her more responsibility in the kitchen. And the first Easter after Contessa’s death, “everyone kind of turned to me and said, ‘OK, you saw it, what do you do?’ ” remembers Spoto, now a Cliffside Park councilwoman.

That year, the family blew through eight pounds of meat trying to re-create Grandma Katy’s pie. They’ve since nailed down a system that combines Genoa salami, boiled ham and the cow’s milk cheese called scamorza (often known as “dry mozzarella”), though the recipe exists mostly in their heads.

While they’re honoring old times, Haroldson and Spoto have tweaked a few things for their busy lives. Haroldson often buys frozen pizza dough for the crust, much to her daughter’s consternation. Spoto now makes hers with King Arthur white whole-wheat flour for an element of healthfulness.

In Elmwood Park, Quartucci’s updated recipe makes fewer pies than her mother-in-law’s, which originally made a whopping 24 pies and required a small army of family helpers. Now, Quartucci generally makes six pies at a time, splitting them among her daughters, her friends, and reserving one to keep on the kitchen table on the morning of Holy Saturday so that everyone can slice off a piece as they walk by.

And what about the dessert pies? Jessica Marotta, a pastry chef for Franklin Lakes-based caterer Ooh La La, grew up on her grandmother’s classic pastiera recipe, which tended to sit a little heavy after dinner. “I wanted to create a lighter version of the pasteria, so it could be enjoyed after eating a big meal without busting the button on your pants,” she said.

Her solution: a sweet, creamy tart filled with farro and dotted with cranberries, served on a thin polenta crust. On Easter Sunday, Marotta will make both versions for her family, letting them choose between an old family recipe and its modern tribute.

Email: [email protected] Blog: northjersey.com/foodblog Twitter: elisaung

* MARIE QUARTUCCI’S PIZZA GAINA

Quartucci’s daughter-in-law, Alicia Quartucci of Elmwood Park, provided this scaled-down version of the original. It makes six 6-inch pies, and Quartucci recommends using glass pie plates so that you can monitor the color of the bottom crust.

For the crust:

2 1/2 pounds all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 pounds Crisco, room temperature
2 eggs
Water

Stir flour and salt together. Add Crisco. Using pastry cutter or stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment, blend until dough is smooth.

Beat eggs and pour into a 2-cup measuring cup. Add water until liquid reaches the 2-cup mark. Add this to the flour mixture and incorporate, using dough hook or your hands, until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl, and everything is well-incorporated. Add more flour if necessary.

Cover the bowl and place in refrigerator for at least an hour, or up to a day.

For the filling:

4 pounds Esskay smoked ham or canned Hormel ham, cut in cubes, about the width of a dime
2 pounds Hormel pepperoni sliced very thinly, or 2 pounds pre-sliced pepperoni

baking with Bill & Sheila

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