Pumpkin-Carving Picnic at the Panhandle

It was a potluck so I brought a savory Italian pie and a spinach salad with dried berries, goat cheese and sweet/spicy pecans. I had a little bit of extra crust and so used a leaf cookie cutter to create an "autumnal adornment" for the top. If you glaze the crust with egg yolk before baking, it turns the most delicious shade of brown!

Italian Pie:
crust ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 egg
1 egg white
2 Tbs. milk

filling:
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion chopped
4 oz. proscuitto, chopped
4 oz. salami, chopped
1 10 oz. box spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pesto
1 egg yolk
1 cup jarred roasted red peppers

To prepare crust:
Pulse flour, salt and butter in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix egg, egg white and milk in a small bowl. While machine is running, add milk mixture to food processor and keep it running until dough forms a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing filling.

To prepare filling:
Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Saute onion, proscuitto and salami until onion is soft. Set aside.

Combine spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, pesto and egg yolk in a bowl and mix until combined. set aside.

Slice red peppers.

To assemble pie:
Preheat oven to 375.

Roll out 2/3 crust into a (rough 10"-12") circle. Place in a springform pan and let the extra go up the sides of the pan, pleating to smooth it out.

Spread 1/2 onion-meat mixture on the bottom of the crust. Add 1/2 spinach mixture followed by 1/2 roasted red pepper strips (just scatter them evenly.) Repeat.

Roll out remaining third of dough into an 8" circle. Put it on top of the pie and roll the edges of the side dough to seal the top. Cut 2-3 vents in the top of the pie. Use extra dough to make a decoration if desired. Brush crust with 1-2 beaten egg yolks.

Bake for 50 minutes. It will stay hot for a good 1-2 hours, great to bring to a picnic as it also tastes delicious at room temp.

Also--you can fill this pie with just about anything --you can easily make substitutions to make it vegetarian. Just stay away from anything too wet so the crust doesn't get soggy.