An Italian Easter - Pizza Rustica And Easter Egg Bread

Easter in my Italian family always means Easter Egg Bread and Pizza Rustica (Rustic Pie). The Easter Egg Bread is braided and inside each of the holes that the braids make, is a colored egg. It has lemon rind and lemon juice in it, so it is sweet...yet a bit tart. It comes out delicious.

The Pizza Rustica is a meat pie made with sausages, ham, cheeses and eggs (natch). I try to keep the egg yokes to a minimum and I try to keep the salt down a bit, but note that the thing is full of meats that have salt in them. I use fresh cheeses, so they are not too bad on the salt, at all. If you are watching your salt intake, either don't try this recipe, or if you make it, just take a small piece...yeah right. lol

These 2 traditional foods will be served at my breakfast table on Easter Morning.


I made an Easter Webpage several years ago, explaining the two and you might like to check it out.

Here are the recipes:


Easter Egg Bread (for Bread Machine)

2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 tbl warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup shortning (I use canola oil)
3/4 tbl lemon juice
1/2 tbl lemon peel (either fresh or dried, but use a little less if dried)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
Cooking Instructions:
Place all ingredients in bread machine and cycle for dough. It takes 2 batches to make the full 5 Easter egg ring. (If you do not have a bread machine, you need to double the recipe and knead the dough. When done, place it into a large bowl to rise. Punch down when doubled and let it rise a 2nd time.)

color 5 raw eggs (they will cook when the bread bakes)

Place the first batch into a large bowl and put it in a warm location to rise. Make 2nd batch. Add it into the bowl that the first batch is in and let rise some more. When doubled in size, punch down and make the dough into 2 long ropes about 26 inches long. Braid them together, placing one of the eggs into the middle of each hole. (see picture). Then connect the beginning and end together to make a complete ring. Let rise an hour or so and then bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Brush with 1 egg yolk and a tbl of milk. Immediately as you are brushing it, sprinkle multicolored candies onto the section of bread you are working on, until the entire ring is brushed and sprinkled.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes until the bread is golden brown. The eggs will be hard cooked.

Serving Suggestions:
Serve for Easter Morning Breakfast, with butter, cream cheese or just plain







Pizza Rustica (Rustic Pie)

Pie Crust
2 cups Flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
3 tbl shortening (margarine is ok and I use canola oil)
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup ice cold water
Filling
2 hard boiled eggs chopped
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese diced
1 lb fresh ricotta cheese
2 raw eggs
1 tbl grated romano cheese
3/4 lb fresh Italian sausage. Remove skin and brown in a fry pan
4 oz Italian salami diced
2 oz boiled ham diced
The following 2 ingredients are very expensive, so what I do is increase the ingredients above, to take the place of them.
1/2 dried Italian sweet sausage diced (Sopressata)
1/4 lb proscuitto chopped
Cooking Instructions:
blend dry ingredients with shortening.

Then add cold water and egg. Mix with a spoon until it forms a ball.

Split into 2 parts and roll out for a 10 inch pie pan. Leave about a half inch overhang for the bottom crust.

Combine ricotta cheese and eggs. Add the cooked and cooled sausage meat and all the diced meats, cheese and hard boiled eggs. Mix well. Put into the pie crust and then cover with the other crust. Bring the overhang from the bottom crust up and kind of twist it over the top crusts edge. Cut about 5 slits into the top crust, sprinkle with a little water to moisten and place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 325 degrees for the final 45 minutes. For a golden brown crust, brush with beaten egg, the final 15 minutes before it is done. Repeat. Remove from oven and let cool.