For pie crust
Pasta Frolla (Shortcrust pastry dough)
500 grams (about 1 pound) flour
220 grams (about 7-3/4 ounces) white sugar
180 grams (about 6 1/2 ounces) butter
70 grams (about 2 1/3 ounces) lard
2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk

For filling
a quarter of a liter milk
60 grams sugar
30 grams [corn] starch
2 egg yolks
any flavoring you like
30 grams whole pine nuts
80 grams raisins

Egg wash
Egg yolk

For sprinkling (after baking)
Icing sugar

For pie crust

If you want to make short pastry without losing your mind, grind the sugar very fine (I use icing sugar) and mix it with flour. If the butter is still hard, work it beforehand with wet hands on the pastry board until it becomes soft. Make sure that the lard isn't rancid. Blend everything to forma dough, but try to handle it as little as possible or it will "burn" as the chefs say. For this reason it's better to use the blade of a knife to blend the ingredients at the beginning. When convenient, you can make the dough before, because raw dough doesn't go bad, and the more it rests, the more tender it will be when baked. When using the dough for pastries, pies, cakes, etc. first roll it out with a smooth rolling pin, and then for a nicer appearance, use a ridged rolling pin to roll the part that will go on top, and then gild with egg yolk. If you use icing sugar, the dough will roll out better. In order to work the dough less, you can mix the leftover pieces with white wine or Marsala, which will also help to make it more tender.



For filling

This recipe is done in the same manner as "pizza alla napoletana," using a pasta frolla double crust layered pie.



Using a double boiler make a custard using the milk, sugar, cornstarch, egg yolks and flavoring.

Remove the custard from the heat and add the pine nuts and raisins.



Pour the custard in a pie pan that has been lined with the pastry dough.

Cover the custard with the top pie crust in the usual manner.

Brush with beaten egg yolk.



Bake until done.

Cool.

Dust with icing sugar prior to serving.



Italian text

Riempita con questo composto una pasta frolla comme avete fatto per la pizza alla napoletana.

The recipe in this entry was taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene manuale Pratico per le Famiglie" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi. The book was first published in 1891. Since then many Italian editions have been published. Olga Ragusa's selection of recipes from Pellegrino Artusi's famous cookbook, titled "The Italian Cook Book," can be found in its entirety at www.archive.org (It's free). The University of Toronto recently published a new English edition of Pellegrino Artusi's "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well"; many of the recipes in this edition can be found at www.books.google.ca.... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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