Tomato pesto pie

I’ve recently discovered StumbleUpon.com which is a random search engine you can set to your personal interests. It’s fun. One area of interest for me is cooking/recipes. This Savory Tomato Pesto Pie was found via Stumble on the Farmgirl Fare cooking blog. You can get the recipe details there. I modified the recipe slightly by adding sliced salami.

Note: this is a savory dinner pie with a biscuit-style crust, so it is supposed to look all puffy and “home made.” I take my pie crust pretty seriously, so I don’t want to come off looking real sloppy, just so you know.

Here we go.

First I set off to make the pesto. Basil here is a little different than back in the States, but it gets the job done. So I bought several bunches of “manjericão” (basil), some garlic, raw almonds and the best finely grated parmesan cheese I could find. My toaster oven and food processor took care of the rest.

Then I dove into the crust. Notice that the crust (as well as the pesto) has grated parmesan cheese included. With the help of another American, now living in São Paulo, who maintains a beautiful cooking blog called The Salty Cod, I’ve taken to buying better quality butter to help with better baking results. (Thanks Mallory.) Keep that in mind if you are replicating this pie in Brazil. Next time I make this pie I think I will include some herbs in the crust as well.

I was mindful not to over work the dough. Separating the dough into two portions, the one for the bottom slightly larger than the one for the top, I put the top portion in the refrigerator to keep it chilled until I needed it later. Enter rolling pin.

Then I layered the pesto, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and salami, two layers each, then topping that with the last batch of parmesan.

Final crust up top, a few steam vents, and it was into the oven until golden brown.

This came out so delicious we immediately ran a big slice upstairs to dona Yolanda so she could taste it while it was still warm. And of course we shared it with Zozó as well.

American comfort food usually draws blank stares or curious looks from the locals, but in the end they are delightfully satisfied.