Monacona Pie is a delightful, savory pie made with a flaky pate brisee crust and a filling of cherry tomatoes, cooked Italian sausage, basil, cubes of tender eggplant, prosciutto, and a tasty mix of cheeses. I’m not going to sugar coat it here; this is every home cook of southern Italy’s favorite way to clean out their fridge! That is the pure beauty of this dish—if you have pieces of a few different types of cheese in your fridge, or maybe some leftover cooked sausage or ham slices, even some cooked vegetables like zucchini, eggplant or spinach, this is a wonderful way to bring those leftover ingredients together into a tasty tart. Like I have said before, wasting food is not an option in Italy; if there are leftovers ingredients in an Italian kitchen, creativity kicks in and in minutes, voila! Those leftover ingredients have magically been transformed into an innovative and scrumptious new dish.
(To view the recipe click on the blue title of the blog post above*)
Monacona Pie
Ingredients:
- * Recipe Courtesy of Mami Camilla Cooking School*
- Cook crumbled Italian sausage in a sauté pan over medium-high with a touch of olive oil until it is cooked through. In another sauté pan, cook cubes of eggplant in olive oil until tender. Drain on a paper towel and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out brisee dough into (2) 9-inch rounds; fit one of the rounds into the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate and perforate with a fork. Perforate the second round as well (this will be used for the top of the pie.) Sprinkle bread crumbs on the dough that you fit into the pie pan, followed by halved cherry tomatoes, the cooked sausage, torn basil, the sautéed eggplant, cubes of fresh mozzarella cheese, and grated parmesan cheese. Top this filling with thinly sliced prosciutto and slices of Swiss cheese; cover the filling with the other perforated brisee dough that you have already rolled out. Brush with beaten egg-milk wash and bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, approximately 20-25 minutes.
Directions:
Tagged: basil, cherry tomatoes, culinary school, eggplant, exernship, Italian sausage, Italy, Mami Camilla cooking school, Monacona Pie, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, pate brisee, prosciutto, savory pie, Sorrento, swiss cheese, tart
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