Erbazzone or Silverbeet Pie
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Serves: 8
For pie crust
- 400g/14ozs. plain all purpose flour plus extra for rolling
- 210ml/7.4ozs. warm water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 30ml/1oz extra virgin olive oil or lard
For filling:
- 1.25kgs/2.7lbs silverbeet
- Olive oil for frying
- 200g/7ozs bacon or pancetta, diced
-
1 leek, bottom part only or 1 large white or yellow onion, sliced
-
3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- 150g/5ozs Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated (if you omit the bacon upp the amount of cheese to 250g or to taste)
- Salt and pepper
Step 1 - First make the dough. Add the flour to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt to the water and dissolve. Then add the salted water and olive oil to the flour and mix with a spatula. Then knead with the dough hook on low speed for 6-7 minutes. The dough is ready when you poke it and the depression disappears after a few seconds. Oil two bowls and divide the dough into two equal halves, cover and rest for an hour (I like to do this while I make and cool the filling).
Step 2 - Wash the silverbeet leaves well and cut the stems out of the silverbeet in a V shape and then dice the white stems up. Then chop up the leaves but keep these in a separate bowl. Place a large pot of water onto boil and simmer the diced stems only for 5 minutes. Then add the leaves and simmer for a minute or two until wilted and then drain in a colander. Put the same pot on to medium heat and add a tablespoon of oil and fry the pancetta until starting to crisp up. Add the sliced leeks and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Then add the drained greens back into this pot. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and stir well so that the pancetta isn't at the bottom. Place the lid on and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat stirring about 4-5 times in that time just to ensure that it doesn't catch and adding oil if needed. You want the greens to be soft and cooked down and any excess liquid evaporated by the time that you have finished. Cool the greens mixture and then mix in the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and season with salt and pepper. If you make the filling ahead of time you can refrigerate it at this stage and use it over the next 2-3 days.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Take one ball of dough and lightly flour a large sheet of parchment. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle, mine was around 43x26cms/17x10inches. You want the dough to be very thin. Cover the dough with the filling leaving an inch at the side unfilled. Smooth the filling flat with an angled spatula. On another large sheet of parchment repeat the process with the dough. Then place the other rolled out dough on top of the filled one. Seal the edges by folding it over and then crimp the edges.
Step 4 - Take a fork and prick the pie all over making sure to pierce the dough so that steam can escape. Brush with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil including the crimped crust. Bake for 50-55 minutes turning halfway to brown it evenly. Allow to cool for 20 minutes and then you can slice it up.