Erbazzone (Savory Greens Pie) Recipe
Erbazzone is a savory vegetable pie from Reggio-Emilia in Emilia-Romagna. Greens are sautéed with onion and pancetta and enriched with Parmesan cheese, encased in a crust made from an unleavened dough of flour and water enriched with oil or lard called pasta matta, and then baked. Simple, honest food, made from humble ingredients in the cucina povera tradition.
Erbazzone strongly resembles the pizza di scarola (escarole pie) of Campania, and in fact at least one source says they share the same ancient Roman ancestor. Truth is, this kind of simple vegetable pie can be found all over the Boot. A popular street food in its homeland, for the rest of us erbazzzone makes for a healthy—but terribly addictive—snack or antipasto.
Ingredients
Makes one medium-sized pie
For the pasta matta:
350g (12 oz) flour
A heaping dob (about 50g/4 Tbs) lard or 4 Tbs olive oil
A large pinch of salt
Water, q.b., about 1 cup
For the filling:
750g (1-1/2 lb) Swiss chard (with or without their stems) and/or spinach leaves, well washed
50g (2 oz) pancetta or lardo, finely chopped
1 or 2 spring onions, both white and green parts, finely chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
A few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped (optional)
75g (2-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
For baking:
Olive oil
Directions
Make the pasta matta:
Pulse together the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the lard or olive oil and pulse until well incorporated. Add the water, bit by bit, processing steadily, until a ball of dough forms. Transfer the dough ball to a board and knead lightly for a moment. The dough should be soft and quite pliable. If it’s sticky, incorporate a bit more flour. Dust the dough with flour, then wrap in a towel or plastic wrap and set aside for at least a half hour.
Make the filling:
If your greens aren’t sold pre-washed, rinse them well, in several changes of water if necessary. Parboil the greens in salted water just until wilted. Drain under cold water until they have cooled off. Then squeeze them dry and chop them roughly.
Make a soffritto by sautéing the pancetta, onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add the chopped greens and mix well. Let the greens absorb the flavors of the soffritto for a few minutes over moderate heat, seasoning generously as you go. Let cool completely, then mix in the parsley and grated cheese.
Form the Erbazzone:
Divide the dough in two. Roll out one half into a thin round, then lay it over a well-greased baking pan about 27cm/11 inches in diameter. Lay the filling out all over the bottom of the pan. Roll out the other half of the dough and lay it over the filling. Trim off the excess dough and crimp the edges.
Bake:
Prick the top layer of dough all over with a fork or a skewer. (This step prevents the top crust from puffing up.) Then brush the dough with olive oil. Bake in a hot (200C/400F) oven for a good 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.
Serve:
Let your erbazzone cool until just slightly warm. Cut into slices and serve. It is also quite nice at room temperature.
Notes on Erbazzone
The crust of an erbazzone is made from pasta matta or ‘crazy dough’ in Italian, essentially a kind of pate brisée but usually made with lard or olive oil instead of butter and with rather less fat content overall. Sometimes a drop of white wine or white wine vinegar is added. In his 1891 classic La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, Pellegrino Artusi—whose recipe for pasta matta includes only flour, water and salt—explains that the name doesn’t derive from its craziness but rather its simplicity, which allows it to serve as the ‘missing boot’ for many different dishes:
Si chiama matta non perché sia capace di qualche pazzia, ma per la semplicità colla quale si presta a far la parte di stival che manca in diversi piatti, come vedrete…
Pasta matta is an excellent all-purpose pie dough well worth adding to your repertoire. I find it easier to work with than pate brisée, both more supple and elastic, and it doesn’t need chilling to be workable. It can be stretched out very finely if need be, even paper-thin as when making a torta pasqualina or strudel. With its lower fat content, a crust made with pasta matta comes out crispy rather than flaky. It can be used in both savory and sweet recipes.
Lining the baking pan with parchment paper makes lifting your erbazzone out of its pan a breeze
One trick that makes easy work of lifting the erbazzone out of the pan for slicing and serving: Cut out a piece of parchment paper large enough to line the bottom and sides of your baking pan. Grease the paper well and lay the bottom layer of dough on top of the paper, then transfer paper and dough to the pan and proceed from there.
Variations
Most Italian recipes for erbazzone call for rather more greens (a full kilo/2 lbs) and a rather wider baking dish than called for in this recipe. I found the measurements provided here provide a nice balance of crust and filling, plenty as a snack or antipasto for 4-6 people. But you can play around with measurements and sizes to suit your taste and appetites. Erbazzone was traditionally baked a round copper pan, but it can easily be made in a rectangular one, too. It doesn’t really matter. It can, in fact, be any shape you like. Some people make a “free form” erbazzone, laying out a round of dough, a bit like a pizza. on a flat baking sheet, and proceed from there. But however you make it, do remember, an erbazzone should not be ‘deep dish’ pie in the way, say, a torta pasquilina is.
In the most traditional recipes, half the soffritto is held back and used to top the dough a few minutes before it’s done. Sounds savory but a bit messy. By contrast, in some other recipes you brush the top with egg yolk for a more lustrous, golden crust. Most erbazzoni though appear to be blonds rather than brunettes.
Erbazzone is hardly a meaty dish, but like many recipes in the cucina povera tradition, it includes just a bit of meat for flavor. You can easily make your erbazzone vegetarian by omitting the pancetta from the filling and using olive oil instead of the lard for the crust. Print Yum Erbazzone Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Yield: Makes one medium-sized pie IngredientsFor the crust:
350g (12 oz) flour
A heaping dob (about 50g/4 Tbs) lard or 4 Tbs olive oil
A large pinch of salt
Water, q.b., about 1 cup
For the filling:
500g (1 lb) Swiss chard (with or without their stems) and/or spinach leaves
50g (2 oz) pancetta, finely chopped (optional)
1 or 2 spring onions, both white and green parts, finely chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
A few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped (optional)
75g (2-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
For baking:
Olive oilDirectionsMake the pasta matta:
Pulse together the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the lard or olive oil and pulse until well incorporated. Add the water, bit by bit, processing steadily, until a ball of dough forms. Transfer the dough ball to a board and knead lightly for a moment. The dough should be soft and quite pliable. If it's sticky, incorporate a bit more flour. Dust the dough with flour, then wrap in a towel or plastic wrap and set aside for at least a half hour.
Make the filling:
If your greens aren't sold pre-washed, rinse them well, in several changes of water if necessary. Parboil the greens in salted water just until wilted. Drain under cold water until they have cooled off. Then squeeze them dry and chop them roughly.
Make a soffritto by sautéing the pancetta, onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add the chopped greens and mix well. Let the greens absorb the flavors of the soffritto for a few minutes over moderate heat, seasoning generously as you go. Let cool completely, then mix in the parsley and grated cheese.
Form the Erbazzone:
Divide the dough in two. Roll out one half into a thin round, then lay it over a well-greased baking pan about 27cm/11 inches in diameter. Lay the filling out all over the bottom of the pan. Roll out the other half of the dough and lay it over the filling. Trim off the excess dough and crimp the edges.
Bake:
Prick the top layer of dough all over with a fork or a skewer. (This step prevents the top crust from puffing up.) Then brush the dough with olive oil. Bake in a hot (200C/400F) oven for a good 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.
Serve:
Let your erbazzone cool until just slightly warm. Cut into slices and serve. It is also quite nice at room temperature.Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes0.1http://memoriediangelina.com/2018/04/14/erbazzone/(c) Frank Fariello
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