A Savoury pie for Pi Day

Pi Day is coming up in on March 14th (Get it?  3/14 for those of you who live in countries where they put the month before the date).  A physicist called Larry Shaw came up with this idea in the late 80’s as a kind of geeky way to celebrate this mathematical constant. Coincidentally, this date was apparently Albert Einstein’s birthday as well.  This is a festivity I can get completely behind: it reminds us of an important math concept, and we can make and eat lots of pie. What’s there not to like? Last year for the super DIY site Instructables   I came up with this savoury pie for a Pi Day contest they were running.  I tried to use flavours from Greek cuisine.  The end result tasted wonderful, so whether it is very Greek or not is beside the point.

What is so great about Pi anyway?

Pi is a pretty cool math constant.  No matter how big or small a circle is, the ratio between the circumference of the circle and the diameter of that same circle is always 3.14 followed by an infinite amount of digits. A woman called Emma Haruka Iwao has recently calculated Pi to 31 trillion digits.  Luckily we don’t have to put all of those digits into our calculators to work out the area of a circle, otherwise it would take us our whole life-time to do one math problem (can you imagine a teacher setting THAT test?).  The constant has been used for about 4000 years; first by the Babylonians  and then the Egyptians.  It wasn’t until Archimedes of Syracuse came along in the heady days of the 200’s BC that pi was calculated a little more precisely. The symbol for pi, which I can’t write here due to the limitations of the WordPress keyboard, was taken up by mathematicians in the 1700’s, and has become today the symbol much loved by math teachers and hated by the majority of schoolchildren all over the world.

Pi is all around us

So, the other freaky but tremendously cool thing about pi is that it’s everywhere in nature.  Apparently, it’s a constant that comes up , well, constantly, in pretty much every aspect of the natural world from the way stripes on a zebra are set out, to the timing of division of cells in growth, to breathing cycles, to the way a pine-cone or a seashell grows.  We cannot escape it, even if we want to.  That’s the attraction of it for scientists and mathematicians.  If they can uncover patterns of sequences of digits in pi, or why the digits are as they are, maybe they can unlock the secrets of the universe.

The pie made for pi

The best thing about Pi Day is that you can eat lots of pie!  I used ingredients for this pie inspired from Greek cuisine.  You may notice that the ingredients are in 3, 1, and 4 quantities.  that wasn’t so easy to pull off, but somehow I managed!  I used filo pastry to match the pie theme, but you could happily use puff pastry instead and get a great result.  Actually, it may be even better to use a sturdier pastry base than filo so that the filling sits in the pie better.  Let me know if you try it!

Travel photo of the week

I have been to Greece a couple of times, but unfortunately I don’t have any digital photos as it was way too many years ago.  The next best thing I can show you is the town of Syracuse (Siracusa) in Sicily where Archimedes hung out and did all his world-shaking and moving.  The old town is on an island called Ortigia, which connected to the mainland by two bridges.  There are Greek ruins scattered all over the place, so it’s fairly easy to imagine the daily life that Archimedes and the inhabitants of Syracuse must have had way back then. Some of the same streets and squares that you wander on in Syracuse will be the same places where Archimedes put his feet centuries ago (maybe with a little refurbishment to the stone work since that time).  Now, that’s something pretty cool to think about!

By Lisa Watson

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Greek Inspired Savoury Tart for Pi Day

This savoury tart is filled with delicious zucchini, spinach, mint, Greek yogurt, and feta cheese. Make a pie for Pi day!

Course entree, Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 3 zucchini (courgettes) small
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 tomatoes medium-sized
• 3 eggs
• 100 g baby spinach
• 4 sprigs mint
• 3 eggs
• 1 lemon for zest
• 4 turns of a pepper mill
• 300 g Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 1 packet feta cheese
• 4 sheets filo pastry

Instructions

• Mince the garlic. Chop the zucchini in cubes. Chop the tomato in cubes.
• Zest the lemon.  Roughly chop the mint leaves. Crumble the feta cheese.
• Put the oil in a large frying pan. Add the zucchini cubes, garlic, and the salt. Sauté for 4 minutes, stirring often.
• Add the spinach and lemon zest. Sauté for 3 minutes.
• Add the tomato chunks and chopped mint.  Cook for 1 further minute, stirring carefully.
• Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Oil a quiche dish and place a round of baking paper on the bottom of it.
• Layer the sheets of filo pastry one on top of the other in the quiche dish.
• In a medium-size bowl, whisk the eggs and yogurt together. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt.
• Add the cooked vegetables to the pie and spread them out over the filo pastry.
• Sprinkle the crumbled feta over the top.
• Pour the egg mixture over the other ingredients.
• Bake at  180 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 40 - 45 minutes, until the custard is set.

The difference between pizza rossa and pizza marinara

I generally make pizza rossa for one of my sons as he hates melted mozzarella (still trying to figure out why).  He also loves anchovies, so I add them with some olives and capers.  If you prefer, you can just cook the base with the tomato sauce and sprinkle a little torn basil on it after it has finished cooking. Pizza rossa differs from pizza marinara in that it generally doesn’t have garlic or oregano on it, but just a pure tomato sauce.  As it is one of the only ingredients used to make the pizza, other than the dough itself, the sauce should be very good quality.  If you have a small space to grow tomatoes, you can even bottle it yourself.  

Marinara in all its forms

Just for the record, when Italians use the word marinara sauce for pasta, it often means that it has seafood in it. In the U.S.A, it means that it is a simple sauce made with tomato, and maybe garlic and oregano. So hopefully now if you come from the States and travel to Italy, you won’t be confused or upset when you order pasta “marinara” and get seafood with it. On the other hand, marinara sauce on a pizza in Naples will just be one with tomato sauce, garlic and oregano.

Nothing like building a fire in the backyard

I am lucky that we have a fantastic wood-fired pizza oven in our garden, so I can make Italian pizza whenever I want to,  just like the ones we get when we go across to Italy. This is not a sponsored post at all, but I have to say that I adore this oven from Alfa Pizza.  I have been using it once a week for a few years now to make pizza (even in the Winter) and it’s easy to do as, if you have nice dry wood, it only takes about 15 minutes to heat up, and then cooks each pizza in about 2 minutes. I have even made pizza in the rain a few times holding an umbrella over the pizza as I put it into the oven.  That’s how much we like pizza in our household.  When it’s really pouring, snowing or freezing cold, I will sometimes cook the pizza in the kitchen oven.  It comes out alright, but the one in the wood-fired oven comes out so much better that even if I have to put a jacket and wool hat on, I’ll get out in the garden and fire up the pizza oven.  There’s something very satisfying about cooking with fire.  It brings out the wilderness girl in me.  We often then scrape the coals into a fire-pit and the kids make s’mores from graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, which is a trick we picked up on a trip to the States.  More about that in another post.  We’re off to Canada next week, so I’m sure that there will be much open-fire making and s’mores eating there.  I’ll tell you about about it when we get back.

Travel Photo of The Week

As pizza comes from Southern Italy, and because Alfa Pizza is based south of Rome, here’s a photo of Rome for you to enjoy.  This is the view from our hotel window over the neighbourhood of Trastevere at sunset.  I’ll be telling you more abut that little trip in the near future.  I promise!

By Lisa Watson

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Red Pizza With Anchovies

Not all pizzas need mozzarella cheese on them.  Make a "red" pizza and add your favourite topping!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 1 pizza

Ingredients

• 250 g Pizza Dough
• 5 tbsp tomato puree
• 5 - 8 Anchovies in oil
• 5 or 6 Capers
• 5 Black Olives

Instructions

• Make pizza dough using this recipe  (click on the words "using this recipe" to find the recipe.  For some reason I can't make it blue!) or use store-bought dough. Note: making the dough will take an overnight rising so start the day before you want to eat the pizza.
• If you have a wood-fired pizza oven, make the fire and wait for it to heat up.  If using an indoor oven, use a pizza stone and place it on a rack in the top third of the oven.  Heat the oven to its highest temperature for at least 45 minutes before putting the pizza in to cook.
• Spread out the pizza dough with your fingers on a floured surface that you can use to slide the pizza off straight into the oven.
• Add the tomato puree and spread it over the base with the back of a spoon.
• Sprinkle the pizza with anchovies, capers and olives. Note: do not add salt if you have used the recipe on this blog for making the dough.  there is already enough salt in the dough.
• Bake in the oven.  In a indoor oven, bake the pizza for about 6 minutes.  In a wood-fired oven, bake it for approximately 2 - 3 minutes, turning it by quarter turns every few seconds so that it cooks evenly.
• Eat immediately.

Zucchini, Fava Bean And Cherry Tomato Tart

This is a fantastically easy tart to make during the summer months when you can get zucchini and cherry tomatoes everywhere. If you’ve got a green thumb and a bit of garden, maybe they can even come from there. I made this zucchini tart  one day when it was too hot to do much more than fan myself in the shade, or sit in a cold pool of water (probably caused by my cooling sweat).  It takes hardly anytime to throw together;  The only downside is that you need to use the oven for a while. I highly recommend turning it on and then quickly running away to stick your head under a cold tap until the tart has finished cooking.  The tart is best eaten at room temperature, so you can also cook it the evening before, and then put it and yourself in the fridge for the night.  Are you starting to get the idea that it’s a little hot here right now?

Tricks to get the beans shelled

I just love fava, or broad, beans.  You can prepare the tart using fresh ones, or just throw frozen ones on the tart as it’s cooking, which is far easier and gives the same result. When my kids were younger, I used to be able to con them into shelling the beans, but now they’re older, they’ve got wise to my tricks and hide in their bedrooms until it’s all over. I used a mandolin slicer to cut the zucchini and even managed to not slice my fingers into the tart, which is an amazing achievement! Make sure the zucchini are very small and sliced thinly.  I used the light-green Italian ones for this tart, which have a thinner skin than the dark green zucchini.  I think it would work with that variety too.  If you try it, drop a comment below to let me know how it turns out.

Substitutes for the cheese

I grated Ricotta Salata over the top of the vegetables.  This cheese is made from sheep milk ricotta which has been salted and left to mature for at least 3 months.  If you can’t find it, use any hard cheese that you like and can grate onto the top, or crumble feta cheese on top.  I’m sure that would taste good too. Ricotta salata is made all through the Southern part of Italy from various types of milk, but the end result is always perfect for grating or crumbling onto dishes that are going to be cooked, no matter which kind it is.

Travel Photo Of The Week

Since I have been talking about ricotta, a natural place to show you is, of course, Sicily! In Sicily, they use soft and hard ricotta often in their dishes.  The best cannoli I’ve ever tasted are ones which I ate there.  In fact, I’m going to show you two photos: one to make your mouth water and one to make you want to go on holiday.  The first is taken in a pastry shop in the spectacular village of  Erice, near Trapani. Erice is perched on a mesa, that towers far above the surrounding landscape.  The pastry shop is said to be one of the best in Sicily and goes by the interesting name of Maria Grammatico. You can see some of the legendary ricotta-filled cannoli in the photo below.

This next photo was taken on the Island of Favignana, just off the coast of Trapani.  Here, you can rent a bicycle for next-to -nothing (just don’t expect the brakes or gears to work) and trundle off to fabulous crystal-water beaches like this one. We were there at the end of October, and it was definitely warm enough to go swimming.  That’s coming from me; a total coward when it comes to jumping into cold water.

By Lisa Watson

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Zucchini, Fava Bean And Cherry Tomato Tart

An easy recipe for a tart full of the flavors of Summer

Course buffet, first course, Main Course

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 1 tart

Ingredients

• 1 roll Puff pastry
• 2 -3 Small zucchini
• 60 g Fresh Fava (broad) beans 1/3 cup
• 20 Cherry Tomatoes
• Salted Ricotta to cover
• Salt and Pepper To taste
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Line a cookie-tray with baking paper and lay the puff pastry on it. Fold the edges over and push with your thumb to make a border.
• Thinly slice the zucchini and layer the slices on the pastry.
• Sprinkle the fava beans over the sliced zucchini.
• If the cherry tomatoes are larger, cut them in half before adding them to the tart.  Evenly space them over the tart.
• Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then splash the tart with the olive oil.
• Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes until the tart edges are browned.

Notes

The tart can be eaten hot or at room temperature.

The dangers of eating Italian pizza

When I was a kid my mother would let me choose what we were going to have for dinner each year when my birthday rolled around.  I always, but ALWAYS chose pizza: every single birthday for years and years and years (if you don’t believe me, you can ask my Mum!).  Since then, I have been experimenting tirelessly on how the make the best crust. I thought I had found it years ago, until something incredible happened. I set foot in Italy and ate my first “real” pizza.  I can even tell you what and where it was. You know, it was one of those life-changing experiences for me. 🙂  Pizza Margherita from a back alley in Venice (no, not from a trash-bin!  I traveled on the cheap back then, but not that cheap!).

Away flew my cravings for Pizza Hut pizza with pineapple and ham like a dandelion in a tornado. How could I not have been eating this before? That started me on a culinary eating binge which took me all over Italy.  Pizza with gorgonzola and speck became my drug of choice, and from there I spiraled out-of-control into a whirlpool of madness, until I was brought up short by a potato and rosemary pizza thrust in front of me by a pizziaolo in Rome and finally realised that there was more to life than gorgonzola and speck. Those were dark, dark days. I’m afraid I don’t have a photo of Venice for you as I was there in the days when people walked the Earth without digital cameras or even cell-phones – not even the kind that didn’t take pictures.

The trick to making good pizza dough

You would think pizza dough is easy to make as it has so few ingredients, and it actually IS easy, but it is quite a long process.  It’s totally worth giving up a few hours of your time to do it though, as the results are fabulous! I found the answer to my searching for the perfect recipe when I stumbled across a wonderful website called Viva La Focaccia!. Vittorio puts up videos on how to make all sorts of bread doughs and pizza dough.  The site is all in Italian, but it is completely worth going to the video on how to make pizza dough to watch the steps, even if you don’t understand Italian.  I’ll leave you the link at the bottom of the page.

If you can get a stone to put in the oven to cook on, the dough comes out even more crispy/tender.

An important note: the dough already has enough salt in it.  There is no need to add salt to the tomato puree that you put on the crust.

By Lisa Watson

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Great Italian pizza dough

You would think pizza dough is easy to make as it has so few ingredients, and it actually IS easy, but it is quite a long process. It's totally worth giving up a few hours of your time to do it though, as the results are fabulous!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Total Time 16 minutes minutes

Servings 4 pizzas

Ingredients

• 500 g 00 grade flour. For even better dough, 400g 00 flour and 100g Manitoba flour. 1.75 - 2 cups
• 300 g Water approx. 1.2 cups
• 10 g Salt 3/4 Tbsp
• 1.5 g Active dry yeast 3/4 tsp

Instructions

• Mix the water and half the flour together for 2 minutes. Leave for 20 minutes to let the flour absorb some of the water.
• Add the yeast and mix, then add the salt. Then, add the rest of the flour. Knead the dough for 20 minutes. (This is where the Kitchen-Aid is VERY useful!). Form the dough into a ball and leave it on the bench for two hours, closed in a lightly oiled container. At this point, you can put the dough in the fridge and take it out the next day to continue (in fact, that makes the crust even better!).

  A note: for best results, the dough should be quite soft and almost too sticky to touch.
• Cut the dough into 4 even-sized pieces. Form each piece into a ball. At this point, if you can freeze the dough by putting each ball in a plastic bag in the freezer. To continue the process, take them out and follow the instructions below, allowing an extra hour for thawing.
• Put them into individual containers with lids, lightly brushing the inside of the containers with olive oil before doing so.
• Leave to rise for 4 -6 hours. If you want slower rising, you can put the containers in the fridge overnight (again, if you do another overnight fridge rise, the crust is EVEN better).
• One hour before you are ready to make the pizza turn on your oven to the hottest it can go and place the oven rack in the top-most position of the oven. If you have a pizza stone, even better! Heat that up in the oven at the same time.
• Gently ease the dough out onto a floured tray or pizza slice, trying to keep it intact. If you have square containers, the pizzas will be square (I discovered this from experience). Gently push the dough outwards with your fingers to make it pizza size. You will NOT need a rolling pin. This is the bit where you have to be very careful. If it is stretched too far, you can't make it go back to its original shape (also learned from experience!) . If you make a hole in it, it is very difficult to fix.
• Add a few tablespoons of tomato puree to the top of the dough, and spread it out on the pizza. The secret is not to use too much. It should just cover the pizza, not swamp it.

  Do not

  add salt as the crust already has enough in it.
• Sprinkle some bits of mozzarella on the pizza. Do not add too much cheese, otherwise you will end up with a greasy mess. Add other toppings you would like. If you want to make pizza Italian-style, do not add more than two after the tomato and mozzarella. If you want to put

  prosciutto crudo

  or rocket salad on, add it after the cooking.
• Slide the pizza into the oven and bake it for 6 minutes until the edges puff up and the cheese is bubbling.

Here's the link to the video Vittorio made:

• http://vivalafocaccia.com/2011/06/05/ricetta-pizza-napoletana-impasto-video/

Notes

A kitchen-Aid will give you the best results, but if you don't have one, do it by hand: you'll build up arm muscles and it will still come out delicious. A two-for-one deal! All the instructions here where mixing and kneading were involved were done in my mixer unless stated otherwise.