Spinach Ricotta Pie

Anna had been raving about this spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook that she had made, and when she told me she had just made it again, I figured I had to try it. Coincidentally, I went over to Linnea's house and she made spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook while we were there. It was good. I was hooked. Anna sent me the recipe, and I *almost* managed to follow it all the way through. It appears to be a fairly forgiving dish (like most things I cook, it better be forgiving or it isn't going to taste so good), and I ended up putting in spinach, onion, mushrooms, ground beef, and cheddar, which were all things living on the bottom shelf of my fridge that really wanted to be eaten. I meant to put in corn kernels too, but forgot and left them in the freezer. I think you could add anything, its one of those leftover-user-upper dishes, only it tastes good.

The recipe I used was a little too big for the pie crust, 2/3 of the filling fit comfortably. The other third of the filling I turned into little mini crustless quiche-y things, and they're really good. Better than the pie, actually, because they're bite-sized. I recommend making the whole recipe into little mini crustless quiche-y things, they'd be really good as an appetizer or a snack. The cheddar makes it.

Spinach Ricotta Pie - Alex's version
Crust: (use your favorite pie crust, or use this one)
1.25C flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs frozen butter
3 tbs frozen bacon grease
~1/4C cold water

Filling:
3 eggs
3C skim milk ricotta (or any kind of ricotta, I just used skim)
1lb spinach - I used frozen
1 onion
~1tbs olive oil
2C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp salt
6-10 mushrooms, chopped
3oz ground beef, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced

To make the crust, put the flour and the salt and the butter and the bacon grease into a food processor. Process. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, processing it in between additions, until the dough pinches together. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Cook the filling. Sweat the onions in the olive oil, then add the garlic. Then add the mushrooms and spinach, cook until most of the water is out of these. Cook the ground beef. Chop things up until they're at the size you feel like putting into your pie.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Beat the eggs together in a big bowl. Add the ricotta. Mix it around. Add the rest of the stuff, except the cheddar. Mix it all around until it looks homogenous.

Roll out your pie crust, dock it, and bake it until it is just starting to firm up. Then add the filling. Put a generous layer of cheese on top, and pop that sucker in the oven for 40-45 minutes. If the cheese isn't brown on top when its done, stick it under the broil for a minute or so. Ideally, you'll let this cool and set up a bit before you eat it.

If you have extra filling, you can bake it into little mini crustless quiche-y things. Add any leftover cheese into the filling (very important, otherwise these things won't taste cheesy, which is vital to their goodness). Grease a mini muffin pan, and then fill it to the top or overflowing with the extra filling. Bake until they aren't jiggly any more and they smell cheesy and delicious.

So this thing probably takes about an hour and a half end to end. Not the quickest, but it was durn good. Thanks Anna :)