Easter Calzone

Easter Calzone

I’ve never wept at mealtime, except maybe two or three times, years ago, when my dad swatted me during dinner for some verbal outrage. Food, though it has made me feel very good, has never made me weepy. However, a few weeks ago, I came to understand how someone could conceivably tear up at eating a food that conjured remembrances of bites past.

At a reception earlier this month, they served a bunch of light items in honor of Patricia Wells’ new Salad as a Meal. One of those items was a Ham and Cheese Bread (p. 226); one bite, and I experienced an eye-opening Ratatouille-type retro food memory explosion:



At first nibble, I was feeling my Italian grandmother’s kitchen circa 1958. My grandmother called her version of a similar tasting dish "a calzone," but that word (like bacon or pizza) is open to a wide range of interpretation. It was more like a savory pie, one of my favorite foods.

So, for Easter, I requested that The Wife whip up one of these, which she did. It’s so simple: layers of sausage (Caputo’s “hot”), ricotta (and whatever scraps were in the cheese drawer), and sliced hard-boiled egg. Raw egg went in as binder.



She did a combo white-whole wheat flour crust, sprinkled it with sugar (could not give complete endorsement to that approach; others seemed to like it).

This pie had fine, aggressively simple flavor and immense versatility: I could see it enjoyed for any meal of the day or at any stage of life.

David -- I just returned from the 'old country' (back East) where I revelled in a wide array of our family's traditional Easter dishes, including -- for me, most importantly -- the pies, sweet and savoury... Without them, it wouldn't be Easter and without Easter... well, I can't imagine that...

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