Easter pizza or Easter ‘crescia’ (La crescia di Pasqua)

Ciao a tutti! I am (finally) back! There is no good excuse for being away for such a long time. As always, I will try to make up by starting posting a lot 🙂

As tomorrow it’s ‘Pasqua’, I’d like to share with you again our family recipe for Easter ‘crescia’ – an Easter evergreen pecorino and parmisan cheese pie.

Happy Easter to you all!

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Easter pizza or Easter ‘crescia’ (La crescia di Pasqua)

Where I live Easter is not quite Easter without crescia di Pasqua on our table (be it breakfast, lunch or supper time). Here is nonna Lella’s recipe for crescia di Pasqua:

Ingredients:

• flour: 500 gr. (superfine flour – ‘OO’);
• 5 eggs (whole eggs);
• 2 and 1/2 cubes of brewer’s yeast (75 gr);
• olive oil: 100 gr.;
• butter: 50 gr.;
• (grated) grana padanocheese: 70 gr.;
• (grated) pecorinocheese: 40 gr.;
• one lemon peel (grated);
• salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Step 1: have brewer’s yeast melt in a ‘finger’ of water (or milk) in a bowl. Help the yeast melt working it with a fork or with a wooden spoon

Step 2: beat the eggs

Step 3: beat olive oil together with butter (the latter must be soft, not just taken out of the fridge!)

Step 4: mix flour, cheese, salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg

Step 5: pour eggs, olive oil and butter and yeast into flour, and stir with a long wooden spoon (in the end using your hands)

  

Step 6: butter the baking pan (diameter: cm 22 – height: cm 12), and then pour flour into it (so that crescia di Pasqua won’t stick to it when ready to be served)

Step 7: cover the dough with a dishcloth and have it rise for about one hour in a terrine

Step 8: work the dough again (using your hands) and place it in the baking pan; then have it rise until it reaches the height of the pan

Step 8: place the pan into the preheated oven (175/180 C°) for about 45 minutes (however, after about 20 min. it’s better to cover the top of the crescia with oven paper, so that the top does not overcook – you can first make a ball out of the oven paper, then make it flat and place it on top)

Step 9 (the easiest): serve and eat!